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The 
Story of Corpus Christi 



By 
MRS. MARY X. SUTHERL.\XD 

Edited by 
Frank B . Harrison 



PUBLISHED 1916 

Corpus Christi Chapter 
Daughters of the Confederacy 



COPYRIGHT APPLIED FOR 







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PRESS OF 

Rein & Sons Company 
houston, texas 



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Mary A. Sutherland 



DEDICATION 



TO THE SOLDIERS OF THE CONFEDERACY, THEIR WIVES, 
DAUGHTERS AND SONS WHO EVER STRIVE TO KEEP 
ALIVE THE GALLANT, DEVOTED SPIRIT OF THE OLD, 
AND COURAGEOUS, OPTIMISTIC SPIRIT OF THE 
NEW SOUTH, THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTION- 
ATELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR 
AND CORPUS CHRISTI CHAPTER, 
DAUGHTERS OF THE 
CONFEDERACY. 



N^ 



PREFACE 



The Story of Corpus Christi, presented in this liook 
form as the labor of Mrs. Mary A. Sutherland and with 
biographical sketches by Mrs. Sam Rankin, Eli T. Merri- 
man and others, does not undertake a general and compre- 
hensi\e review of the many years' history of Corpus Cliristi 
and section, nor does it pretend to detail the many activities 
that have contributed into making Corpus Christi the beauti- 
ful gem city of the Texas Coast. 

Rather the efforts of the author have been devoted to 
presenting in plain narrative form, a recountal of the days 
when Corpus Christi was young, of the trials and tribulations 
that fell to the lot of her residents in the war periods, and 
finally to emerge as a fast growing and progressive city of 
the Southland. 

If an error has been made it has been of the head and 
nut the heart. Honest effort has been made to present a 
book that will reflect great credit on Corpus Christi and her 
people and to be remembered with pride l)y Corpus Christi- 
ans in the years to follow. 

With the author the work has been a labor of love. For 
years it has been with her, a cherished ambition to give to 
the people of Corpus Christi a history of their city. Through 
the untiring energy of Corpus Christi Chapter, Daughters of 
the Confederacy, the volume has been published with the 
hope that it will meet with the approval of those men and 
women who know and lo\e the Corpus Christi, of yesterday 
and todav. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. p^ge. 

The Story of Corpus Christi i 

The discovery of Corpus Christi. First settlement on 
the site of our present city. Village first occupied by Span- 
ish Garrison. The legend of Casa Blanca. The first white 
man to reach Corpus Christi. 

CHAPTl'lK II. 

Landing of General Taylor 6 

When the United States declared war on Mexico. Gen- 
eral Taylor and troops in camp at Corpus Christi. A fight 
between soldiers and snakes. When Jefferson Davis, U. S. 
Grant were stationed in Corpus Christi. 

CHAPTER HI. 

Mexicans Attack Americans 9 

Americans attacked while attending Mexican haile. 
Headquarters of General Taylor on Water Street. Taylor 
and his army depart for Mexico. The old Military Cemetery. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Indian Depredations 14 

One of the early depredations. When yellow fever in- 
vaded Corpus Christi in 1854. An early day ball, given by 
the enlisted men. Bookkeeping in the early days. Begin- 
ning of the Civil War. 

CHAPTER V. 

The Civil \\ar 19 

Civil War days in Corpus Christi and vicinity. Pre- 
sentation by ladies of first Confederate flag. Blockading 
fleet of the Federals at the two Passes. When John Ireland 
was Military Governor of Corpus Christi. 

CHAPTi:R VI. 

Th e Last Flag of Truce 23 

How the Confederates sent out the last flag of truce. 
Federals liombarded Corpus Christi August 7, 1802. The 
landing of the enemy. 



viii Table of Contents 

CHAPTER VII. p^gp 
A Trap for the Enemy 28 

How the Rebels trapped the Federals. Attempts to 
prevent Rebels from gathering salt. Two lucky soldier boys 
find Mexican coins. 

CHAPTER VIII. 
When the War Ended 32 

Two negro regiments officered l)y white men, first to 
occupy Corpus Christi. The Ku Kkix Klan. The first 
bicycle and the first baseball games in Corpus Christi. 

CHAPTER IX. 
First Carpetbagger Governor 38 

E. J. Davis left Corpus Christi to rule Texas as the first 
Carpetbagger Governor. Corpus Christi again visited by 
yellow fever, claiming scores of victims. Death of the be- 
loved War-Time Priest, Father Canard. 

CHAPTER X. 

Some Early Day Merchants 42 

The early day wagon trade and pioneer merchants. 
Building of the Texas-Mexican Railroad. Captain Richard 
King an early day ranchero and progressive. Trouble with 
Mexican freebooters. Mexicans make raid at Nuecestown. 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Author Reaches Corpus Chrlsti 48 

How Corpus Christi appeared in 1876. Jangle of Mexi- 
can words first impressed visitors. The cattle and sheep 
industry. 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Man W'ith the Hoe 52 

Early truck growing in Nueces County. Building of the 
San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad. Early day baseball 
teams and some historic games. The arrival of Colonel 
Ropes and the Ropes boom. Building of the St. Louis. 
Brownsville & Mexico Railroad. Building of the ladies' 
pavilion. Epworth League Encampment. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

When Fitzsimmons Trained in Corpus Christi. .... 59 

Tn the summer of 1895 Fitzsimmons trained in Corpus 
Christi. The first naval show on Nueces Bay. The first 
electric lights and the first automobile. 



Table of Contents 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Page. 

The Visit of Presidkxt Taft 62 

President William H. Taft visited Corpus Christi in 
1909. Entertained at the home of Mrs. Henrietta M. King. 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Aumimstratiox of Dan Ri:id 65 

The administration of Mayor Dan Reid, his accom- 
I)lishments and his untimely death. Early day social aflfairs. 
The annua! halls of the Corpus Christi Volunteer Fire 
Department. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

So-ME Early Entertainments 69 

The arrival of the lightning rod agent and medicine 
shows. The first street carnival. The first city hack and 
how it was used at an election. Inc<^rporation of Corpus 
Christi. The Mavors of Corpus Ciirisli since incorporation 
in 1852. " . 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Corpus Christi Schools 78' 

When Colonel Kinney hrought a circus to Corpus 
Christi from New Orleans. Carnival given by Master 
Butchers. Early day puldic and private schools. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Th e Pastores 82 

The Mexican Pastores held at the Vuletide season. Tlie 
Mexican in South Texas. Mexican amusements. Early 
newspapers. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Early Xewspaper Articles 88 

The first public school enrolled one hundred and forty- 
six pupils. The first fire engine. The first bonus raised by 
citizens was to dig channel. Items from early issues of 
Corpus Christi newspapers. 

CHAPTER XX. 
The Tmrst Churches ■ 92 

Methodist Sunday School organized in 1858. Building 
of Protestant Church buildings and organization of congre- 
gations. The murder of George Hatch. 



Table of Contents 



CHAPTER XXT. Page. 

SoM E Early Settlers • 95 

Short biographical sketches of James Hunter, Mark 
Downey, Colonel Spann, George French, M. Lichtenstein, 
R. G. Blossman, Capt. James Thompson, August Ricklefsen, 
John Uehlinger, James McKenzie, Thomas Beynon, Captain 
Oliver, W. B. Wrather and others. The civic works of Eli 
T. Merriman. 

CHAPTER XXH. 

Other Pioneer Residents 102 

Short biographical sketches of pioneer Corpus Chris- 
tians. 

CHAPTER XXHI. 
The Life of Colonel Kinney 104 

Colonel Kinney killed in Matamoras in 1865 while a 
skirmish was in progress between two Mexican factions. 
The Kinney-Jones land title cases. Some hard cases of 
eviction. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Haverty Versus McClane 106 

Sherifif John McClane goes to Chicago and "kidnaps" 
D. Haverty, sutler in a negro regiment. Haverty later 
causes arrest in Chicago of McClane. How the case 
terminated. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Civil War Battles at Corpus Christi 1 1 1 

Two engagements between the North and South on 
Corpus Beach during the Civil War. Confederate Camp 
organized in 1910. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Stories of Early Days 116 

First white child born in Corpus Christi was Andrew 
Baldeschwiller. The old crossing at the reef. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Our Mexican Citizens 120 

Stories that illustrate the typical Mexican resident of 
South Texas. 

Story of Raids By Mexican Bandits 123 

Corpus Christi Postmasters 129 

Beginning and Ending of Civil War 130 

Some Early Settlers 132 

The Daughters of the Confederacy 140 

The Corpus Christi of Today i45 



The Story of Corpus Christi 

By MRS* MARY A. SUTHERLAND 



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CHAPTER I. 

Corpus Christi, quietly, queenly and beautiful, she lies 
on the warm white sands, like a mermaid taking a rest after 
her bath in the sparkling waters at her feet. 

The first knowledge we have of our beautiful Bay of 
Corpus Christi, is derived from ancient French Chronicles. 
In 1687 the ill-fated La Salle, in his search for the mouth of 
the Mississippi, visited and claimed this coast for the Crown 
of France, and in his search undoubtedly visited our shore, 
but went no further inland. 

The Bay was discovered on a Catholic festival day. 
Corpus Christi Day, and hence the name Corpus Christi. 

Our first information of a settlement on the site of our 
present city, is of a little Mexican settlement which, about the 
beginning of the last century, was surprised by a band of 
Indians and the inhabitants killed or carried into captivity, 
and a small boy, after years of roaming with his captors, 
escaped and returned, living on and being a constant em- 
ployee of the Santa Gertrudis Ranch until the time of his 
death, when he was a very old man. 

The original Mexican village above mentioned was 
located about where the Kenedy Pasture Company Building 
now stands. There can be no douI)t but that this was a 
favorite fishing ground for the wild tribes of Indians roving 
this section of the country, which teemed with food ; fish to 
be had for the taking, and great oyster beds uncovered at low 
tide. The adjoining prairies were covered with deer and 
buffalo. The Indians held possession here for years after 
the destruction of this village, using the same as a hunting 
and fishing ground. 

The village mentioned was imdoubtedly established here 
during the occupancy of this place by a Spanish garrison, and 



The Story of Corpus Christi 



left to its fate upon the withdrawal of the troops. The troops 
at this point were commanded by Captain Enrique Villareal, 
who afterwards received a grant of land from the Spanish 
Government, extending from what is known as the "Oso," 
on the south, to Nueces Bay, a distance of about fourteen 
miles, on the north, and from Corpus Christi Bay on the 
east, to Barranca Blanca, about 28 miles, on the west, which 
grant was by his heirs sold to Captain H. L. Kinney. 

While Captain Villareal was stationed here, he sent a 
report to his King, reporting the discovery of a rich silver 
mine in this section of the country, two days' ride from 
Corpus Christi, stating that he, Villareal, had opened this 
mine, and was working it with a detachment of soldiers to 
guard it, and that the Indians had surprised and killed the 
entire party, and that he needed a stronger force of men to 
reopen it. 

There the report ended, and to this day no one knows 
the locality of this mine. Two days' journey at that time 
meant the distance that could be traveled by an ox team be- 
tween dawn and sunset. About this distance from Corpus 
Christi stands the old deserted ruins of Casa Blanca (White 
House). Of this old ruin no one living knows one word of 
its story. White and silent it stands on the hillside, with 
great trees growing up through its chimneys, and vines 
climbing over its doorsills, the very picture of desolation, 
guarding its secrets well. 

As the Spaniards hid all their mines, on the evacuation 
of the country after the War of Independence of Mexico in 
1810, did they hide this mine so closely that it remains a 
secret to this day to the white man who pastures his flocks 
upon the site. Many men have sought in vain for this 
Eldorado. That there is documentary evidence of this lost 
city is borne out by a circumstance occurring years after the 
Spaniard, with his plumed hat and silver spurs, and the fierce 
Indian, with bloody tomahawk, had blazed his last trail and 
gone into the Great Beyond. 

In 1868 a young ranchman bought land, built a home, 
and brought his young bride to live on this lonely ranch near 
the Silent City. They noticed and spoke of a peculiar mound 
of stones standing near their home, remarking that it seemed 



The Story of Corpus Christ: 3 



to be built by hands, and not a natural heap of boulders, but 
were too busy to investigate. During the following winter, 
one wild night when a Texas Norther, of the wet variety, 
was whooping over the plains, and the inmates of the ranch 
home were snug behind closed doors, the dogs began to bark- 
wildly, keeping it up for several hours. Their master sup- 
posed they were defending the sheepfold against some wild 
animal, knew they were to be trusted, and did not go out. 
What was his surprise next morning to see that the mound 
had been removed during the night and a gaping hole opened 
at its base. Who came, from where, for what, no one knows. 
But so many years had elapsed since the desertion of the 
place that we can only suppose that the discovery of some old 
record, perhaps in Mexico, or even in Spain, might have 
incited the hunt. The ranchero, though full of curiosity, was 
glad that his confidence in his dogs had kept him in, being 
sure that his visitors would not have scrupled to add another 
tragedy to the list, if interrupted in their hunt for buried 
treasure the stones had been placed to mark. What? Vale 
Casa Blanca and your Mystery. The Conquistadore has 
gone, his camp deserted, and the places that knew him are 
glad to know him no more. 

Next we read of an efifort to colonize our sister County 
of San Patricio, and a colony was placed at the town of that 
name. One was also formed for Mission Refugio, another 
at Copano. At each place there was a Spanish Mission and 
small garrison of Mexican troops. 

Going back, in 1824, we have the very first news of a 
white man in Corpus Christi, the sole survivor of a vessel 
wrecked on Padre Island, pulled across the bay in a yawl, 
and who found a home with a few Mexicans then here. He 
afterwards removed to Refugio, where he lived to a great 
age. From him we learned much lore of early days, and of 
some things which had puzzled us. Particularly as to how 
the earliest inhabitant earned his living. 

One word enlightened us — Smuggling. Our bay was an 
ideal spot for this industry, and though the life was hard 
and wild, good money was made at it. In "Lynn's Fifty 
Years in Texas," we read that the author came to Corpus 
Christi in 1829 with a cargo of goods purchased in New 



The Story of Corpus Christi 



Orleans for the Mexican trade ; that a man named Wright 
was to meet him here with a pack train to carry the goods to 
Rio Grande. 

Wright failed to appear, and Lynn went to Matamoros 
for a train, leaving his boat at Flour Bluff. On the journey 
he stopped at various Mexican ranches on the trail, and was 
well treated by rancheros, who reminded him of the Patri- 
archs of Bible days, living by their flocks and herds, all 
being pious, God-fearing Catholic people, holding morning 
and evening prayer, but not another word does he tell us 
of our little city. 

Again we learn that prior to 1846, a Mr. Moore, with 
his wife and daughter lived here. Their house, a neat adobe, 
stood on the site of the Corpus Christi National Bank, and 
was torn away when the Bank was built, late in the years of 
eighteen hundred. 

A Mr. Belden, who was married to a Spanish lady, also 
lived here, and he and the Moores were the only Americans 
here at that date. The old Belden house stands yet on 
Mesquite Street near the Arroyo. It is a certainty that the 
bold Buccaneers often visited our bay for fuel and water, 
as they kept guard on the nearby high seas for the rich 
galleons of Spain, loaded with the loot from the Aztec 
Temples. 

For more than two centuries these freebooters sailed 
and robbed the robber, and not until 1820 did the last one 
sail away from these waters. Jean Lafitte in that year, act- 
ing upon a hint from our Government, set fire to his head- 
quarters on Galveston Island, called in his scouts, and has 
the doubtful honor of being the last pirate ever on this coast. 

From this time we have no record of events for the years 
between 1820 and 1846. That a trade was built up with the 
interior, and Mexico, is borne out by the fact, as the few 
Americans here in 1846 were engaged in some business 
netting a living. Occasional boats from New Orleans and 
Mobile visited the settlement. As to whether or not they 
paid duty on their cargoes, is not our affair. 

Our bay, with its many tributaries, was an ideal spot 
for the contraband. The trade was with half civilized 
people, and if the earliest inhabitants risked life and prop- 



The Story of Corpus Christi 5 

crty in the venture, they were a brave, hardy race. The risk 
was theirs, and they were paving the way to give this near 
I'^arthly Paradise to the people who could make a white 
man's country of it. 

From 1840 to 1846 there were various Colonies brought 
to nearby sites. The Irish Colony of San Patricio, the Mis- 
sion Refugio, and what was then known as Sabardie, a 
mission near Goliad. These earliest emigrants suffered ter- 
rible privations. In 1834 two schooners were wrecked at 
the bar, on St. Joseph's Island. Cholera appeared among 
them, and it is estimated that four out of every six found 
a resting place 'neath the waters of the Gulf, as the sur- 
vivors were not able to give them Christian burial, and they 
were cast over without ceremony. The survivors were fin- 
ally carried to Copano on rafts, by ^Mexican soldiers, where 
they made rude shelters of poles and bedding. Eventually 
they traveled on to other villages where a few of their coun- 
try people had preceded them, to get a foothold, only to be 
harried and their last belongings burned, and they driven 
from the State by the Revolution of 1836. Many of them 
came back, some of the best names, of the best citizens in 
the surrounding country, were borne by the families at that 
time. An incident of the landing of the unfortunates at 
Copano was told by an eye witness. 

A party of Indians went out to help them land, as there 
was no dock and they had to wade ashore. The Indians 
were friendly, but as they approached the barge, holding 
out their arms to clasp the children, the poor mothers clasped 
them tight and went over the opposite side. Poor mothers 
and poor babies ! We are forcibly reminded of the saying. 
"Between the Devil and the deep blue sea." The women 
of that time realized its meaning. One of the children oft" 
that boat, who remembered that trip, lived many years in 
Corpus Christi, dying only a few days ago. 

On June 2^, 1845, Texas became a State of the Union. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER II. 

Landing of General Taylor. 

On May ii, 1846, the United States declared war 
against Mexico. During the autumn months of 1845, our 
eastern horizon went mad. Clouds of white canvas appeared, 
long lines of barges, towed by fussy little tugs, traveled 
across the water. General Taylor's army of occupation had 
arrived and camped upon the disputed territory. 

Mexico claimed the Nueces River as the dividing line, 
while Texas claimed south to the Rio Grande. Texas had 
become a State of the Union, June 23, 1845, ^^^ Uncle Sam 
was backing her rights. Slowly the fleet crawled into this 
unknown bay, and putting in close to shore they anchored, 
and men and horses sprang into the water and waded ashore. 
Where the Epworth League was located, was the landing 
place, and soon long rows of white tents dotted the plain, 
and the American officer, in all his bravery of gold epaulets 
and nodding plume, exercised his blooded steed on the snowy 
shell beach. Long lines of infantry followed. Cannon was 
tmloaded, parked camps surveyed, and guards placed. 

General Taylor was at home in Texas, or Mexico as 
the case might seem ! The troops were put to work to clear 
the ground, no small work at that time as the grass was as 
tall as a man's head, and like all the Texas coast, the ground 
literally swarmed with serpents, principally the rattler, 
though all the native varieties were present ; the soldiers even 
claiming that the sea serpent landed nightly and gave battle 
to the land forces. 

One still night the rattle of the numerous snakes created 
a panic in the camp of the Seventh U. S. Infantry, and they 
fled, to a man. Following the beach they came south to the 
Bayou, where they stopped with the artiller}^ men until day- 
light, when they returned and killed one hundred and four- 
teen snakes in and around camp. 

The soldiers, in addition to making camp, were put to 
work to build long embankments of saiid as a windbreak and 



The Story of Corpus Christi 



protection from the Northers. They may Ije plainly traced 
today, long mounds of earth lying east and west. Some 
years since, the writer was able to trace several redoubts, 
one very plainly at the foot of Hughes Street, near the bay. 
About the center of block fourteen, west side of Chaparral 
Street, was an enclosed space of about fifty feet square, with 
only one entrance. This, an ex-soldier told me, was undoubt- 
edly the magazine, but in the march of progress those old 
landmarks have gone, and only the long rows of windbreaks 
remain, mute witnesses of the days when the brave men 
faced an unknown foe, and won for the white race one of 
the fairest spots in all Texas. 

In that great army of occupation came many in the 
heyday of youth, whose names later were to become known 
throughout the world. 

Here on our beach landed the Mississippi Yagers, so 
called because armed with the then new Yager rifle. This 
regiment was commanded by Col. Jefiferson Davis, soon to 
win laurels in Mexico, and later to be the only President of 
the Southern Confederacy, a soldier, a student, a scientist, a 
gentleman. A bright man in each role, but reaching the 
grandeur of his life and manhood when old and poor, a 
manacled prisoner in Fortress Monroe, he defended, at immi- 
nent risk of his life, the people and the cause which he had 
served so faithfully, and during the remainder of his life, 
was an honor to the land which gave him birth. 

U. S. Cjrant was a young officer in this command, and 
noted as a fearless horseman. The story- goes that he pur- 
chased an untamed horse from a native. No one would go 
near the vicious brute, and the Captain took him in hand. 
With the help of his entire troop he mounted and away over 
the brush and briar, through thorn and chaparral, went this 
blue streak, occasionally approaching camp only to have the 
maddened animal bolt anew, much to tiie edification of his 
brother oft'icers and the men, but a few hours later he rode 
into camp with a thoroughly subdued mount. Another story 
of the Captain was that he went one evening to call upon the 
only American lady of the village. Some of his brother offi- 
cers, thinking he was monopolizing too much of her time, 
f^nt some one to trim up his horse, which was tied at the 



The Story of Corpus Christi 



gate (now the Corpus Christi National Bank). When the 
officer came out he found an apparent mule standing at the 
rack. He hunted the miscreant in vain, consigning the poor, 
disfigured and disgraced steed to the pack or wagon train. 
He purchased and mastered the mustang. 

With this brave galaxy came the afterward noted Rebel, 
General Longstreet, and the equally to be distinguished, 
General Sherman, who won fame by marching through 
Georgia, and on that same march to the sea, the undying 
hate of the Georgian, which was plainly demonstrated a few 
years since, when his son, Father Sherman, started to follow 
the route his father had burned his way through some forty 
years before. No less a personage than our own Colonel 
Theodore Roosevelt called off the escort, and not wishing to 
see a new Civil War organized, the trip was abandoned. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER III. 

Mexicans Attack Americans. 

One night some of the enhsted men attended a Mexican 
baile or dance on the hill. The Mexicans attacked the Amer- 
icans, killing one man and chasing the others into camp. 
Although war had not been declared against Mexico at this 
date, there was no love between the races. 

Longstreet, Sherman and others not mentioned, headed 
a party and made an informal call upon the revelers, killing 
four men, burning every jacal (called hackel) on the bluff, 
and running every Mexican ofif the hill into the brush. 

Some of the wives of the officers and men came out. as 
did the sutler and other camp followers, and Corpus Christi 
soon had a little American Colony. 

General Taylor's headquarters were on W^ater Street, 
in block four, in a concrete or adobe house, lately torn down 
to make room for a warehouse built by John Jordt, pioneer 
furniture dealer. The only American young lady in the 
colony was wooed and won by a gallant Captain of the volun- 
teers. Captain Berry, who returned at the close of the w^ar 
and married her. She died after a short and happy married 
life, mourned by all who knew her. She left an infant son, 
now one of the sterling citizens of a sister city. 

But the day and the order to advance came. There was 
wild riding to and from the various camps. Groups of 
orderlies and staff officers came and went again to head- 
quarters, and if the mermaids were looking at that scene of 
brilliant array, which was gathered that April morning on 
the borders of their domain, they saw the American soldier 
at his best. 

And if a mermaid is gifted with second sight, they must 
have shed tears, lots of tears, knowing that some of the 
hearts beating wnth enthusiastic patriotism were never to 
reach that boundar}^ river in dispute, that others were to 
sleep their last sleep 'neath an alien sky, while others were 



10 The Story of Corpus Christi 

to suffer the tortures of a Mexican dungeon, and come back 
broken in health and return home to die. 

The order was given and the advance was on. Long 
Hues of cavalry led the way over the plain. The artillery 
bumped its slow pace over unmarked roads, followed by the 
infantry, and they in turn by miles of wagon train, great 
pack trains, each, wagon drawn by six large mules, for the 
army of occupation must carry its subsistence with it. 

The noisy little tugs and transports, with a part of the 
troops, were sent to Point Isabel, about one hundred miles 
south of Corpus Christi, at the mouth of the Rio Grande. 
The landing of these troops, and the advance of General 
Taylor's land forces deeply stirred Mexico. Taylor reached 
the river and founded Fort Brown (now Brownsville). 

In moving down the river to form a junction with his 
forces at Point Isabel, he was met by a Mexican force, and 
the first battle of the war, Palo Alto (high tree), was fought 
on May 8, 1846. The next day the battle of Resaca de la 
Palma was won by American arms. These battles were 
fought on Texas soil, near Brownsville, on the 8th and 9th 
of May, 1846, though the war with Mexico was not de- 
clared until May 11 of that year. The Mexicans, smarting 
over the loss of Texas, were eager for the fray, and pre- 
cipitated the war by which they were to lose more territory, 
but to this day they believe that Texas fought that war, and 
among the ignorant class, and there is legion of him, every 
American or citizen of the United States, is a Texan. They 
hate him only as an Indian can hate. 

Taylor with his victorious army crossed the Rio Grande, 
and we travel back over his well marked trail with our 
story. But on the route back, a few miles north of Browns- 
ville, we come upon a veritable horror. At the Arroyo 
Colorado, a party of Americans (civilian traders), following 
in the wake of the army, camp for the night. The next morn- 
ing the sun beat upon a rifled camp, and sixteen stark bodies, 
but one of the bodies moves, crawls slowly to the shade of 
the brush, where later he is found, covered with knife 
wounds, by a Mexican farmer. He was but a young Ameri- 
cano, and he was carried to the Mexican women of the fam- 
ily. They hid him and nursed him back to health. Captain 



The Story of Corpus Christi U 

Rogers lived many years in Corpus Christi, and his children 
and grandchildren are today of our best citizens. 

Back to our starting point ! How hard to realize that 
many years have flown. Today perhaps there are some- 
where, a few old cannon in some home, a sword or epaulet, 
cherished as souvenirs of that splendid army. The ships, the 
wagons, the horses and the men are dust. A few long 
mounds of shell, a cemetery which was surveyed by Taylor's 
engineers, a few old traditions, is all that is left of that army. 

That some of them died here we know, hence the ne- 
cessity of a cemetery. They lie in long forgotten gra\es. A 
few years since a letter was received by the Woman's Ceme- 
tery Association, asking if the grave of one Colonel Hodge- 
kiss could be traced. It could not, and only from that letter 
do we know that Colonel Hodgekiss served with Taylor, and 
died in camp here, and was buried on the hillside. 

In later years, officers and men of other times and other 
wars were laid beside him, and for the last few years the 
ladies of the Cemetery Association cared for the Cod's Acre 
in this old Military Cemetery, now Bay View. 

In a beautiful spot, overlooking two bays, lies the dust 
of heroes, men who ser\-ed in the Texas Army, the Mexican 
War, Indian Wars, Ci\ il War (both sides), and one poor 
fellow who died in camp here during the Spanish-.\merican 
War. 

'Neath a lonely mound, marked by a simple marble slab, 
lies all that is mortal of Captain Van Buren, of the Mounted 
Rifles, who was mortally wounded in an engagement with 
the Indians in 1854, the stone erected, according to the epi- 
taph, by his only sister. On the face of the stone is the 
mark showing where it was struck by two grape shot during 
the bombardment of the city by the Union fleet during the 
Civil A\'ar. Beside it lies another stone, shattered by shots 
hred at the same time. 

.\ busy city has grown up on all sides of the old ceme- 
tery, and at the foot of the hill stand the depots of the San 
Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad, and the San .\ntonio, 
Uvalde and Gulf Railroad ; and ever busy life surges around 
the spot to which the early settler always carried his gun. 
ever on the lookout for the skulking savage. 



12 The Story of Corpus Christi 

But few of the soldiers' graves are marked, but we 
know that they lie there. Owing to the efforts of Post Com- 
mander E. J. Kilmer of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
the graves of the Union soldiers have been marked by a 
marble stone. A large stone bearing the simple words, "To 
the Memory of Confederate dead, who lie in this and ad- 
jacent cemeteries," was erected a few years since by a local 
historical association, whose names will appear later. 

Sometime in the Forties, one Colonel Kinney purchased 
the Villareal tract of land, bordering on the bay shore, upon 
which the city now stands, and it became known as Kinney's 
Ranch. 

The Colonel was a progressive man, and willing to di- 
vide the good land with others, he started a real estate boom 
that would be up-to-date even in this fast age. We read of 
his agents in far away Ireland, England, Scotland, and even 
the Northern Isle of Man was on the list. Supposedly also 
in Germany, as we got German Colonists of a superior class. 
In truth, all of the earliest arrivals were of a staunch, pros- 
perous class. 

We read in an unpublished history, which was written 
by a highly gifted lady, whose father emigrated at an early 
date, that each head of a family was required to bring farm- 
ing tools, and provisions for a year, also clothing and general 
supplies. All of them brought some money, but alas, many 
of the tools were never to kiss the virgin soil. And provisions 
that would keep sweet in the climate from which they came, 
would soon be unfit for use in our warm zone. This lady's 
father was of the earliest colonists, who for some strange 
reason, in this and other parts of the State, passed the good 
lands and tried to found cities in impossible nooks. For 
proof, San Felipe, Washington, Velasco, Anahuac, San Pa- 
tricio are recalled. I can call to mind but one of the early 
places which held its own, San Antonio, and she owes her 
prosperity to the God-given water, pure and plenty. This 
with the seemingly inborn instinct of her people to tear down 
anything standing in the way of their progress. A sister city 
is kin to San Antonio, only while she pays tribute to Alamo 
City. 

San Antonio, like our city, has won out, and we will 



The Story of Corpus Christi 13 

visit and enjoy her streams and parks. If we have not the 
same, we have water, salt water with fish in it, and oysters 
and crabs and shrimp, sea food for the taking. 

This was a golden age for the Bay Sailors who unloaded 
the heavy draught steamers at Aransas Pass, lightering the 
goods across the bay to the city. Years afterward an old 
Bay Captain told me that his banner trip netted him an even 
five hundred dollars, this on a cargo of flour. Never less 
than one hundred dollars a trip was cleared. When we 
say Aransas Pass, we mean Aransas Pass, the pass from the 
Gulf, between Mustang and St. Joseph's Islands, which has 
borne the name since it was charted. Situated on the North 
Bay Shore, between here and Rockport, a town sprang up, 
known as Aransas Harbor. In the boom in the eighties, 
later it appeared as Aransas Pass. We are surprised that 
no attention was paid to the change in name, as it is, to say 
the least of it, misleading. The Washington telegrams occa- 
sionally give the news of appropriations for Aransas Pass, 
and of work progressing at that point. 

Naturally, to a person not on the ground, it would seem 
that the Government was doing a lot of work there, while in 
reality there has never been an appropriation of any kind 
for this little place. The citizens of the simon pure pass 
accommodatingly named their postoffice Tarpon (later 
changed to Port Aransas), but to the outside world, to the 
Government Engineers, and to all of this country, Aransas 
Pass is still at the same old spot as in the days of Lafitte, 
and of the early settlers, where in the near future a great 
seaport will be built ; Government Dredges have dug a chan- 
nel from thence up to the wharves at Corpus Christi. 



14 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER IV. 

Indian Depredations. 

During the years between the Mexican and Civil Wars 
our people led an easy care-free life, an occasional Indian 
scare, or the arrival of a bad man who shot up the town, 
were about all the excitements of the times. The Indians 
raided near, and occasionally shot an unwary hunter or trav- 
eler. One of the earliest depredations mentioned was the 
killing of a white man near the site of the Court House. He 
had gone out to bring the cows in for the evening milking. 
This was out of town at this time. Another man journeyed 
out and camped at the reef north of town, meaning to cross 
in the early morning while the water was calm. Later his 
poor, mutilated body was found by stock hunters, wagon 
burned and horses gone. 

But the saddest story of all was that of young Dolan. 
Like all boys he wanted a gun. His mother sent to New 
Orleans by a friend and got the gun for his sixteenth birth- 
day. A proud and overjoyed youth he was the day it ar- 
rived. Taking a Mexican boy with him, he crossed the reef 
to try it out. No doubt their progress across the two miles 
of open water was watched by hidden savages on the other 
side. Soon after arriving on firm ground, they were con- 
fronted by the warriors and a fight for life was on. The 
boy dropped the gun, and fatal error left it, as they kept at 
a distance as long as he held it. Then they seized it and the 
poor boy was slain with his own gun. 

The Mexican boy, true to his training and the Indian 
blood in his veins, wormed his way through the chaparral 
and escaped. Late that night he returned, bringing to the 
v.-aiting parents the heart-rending news that their only boy 
lay dead under the stars. An old chronicle says that this was 
the saddest funeral ever held in Corpus Christi, a party of 
armed men having gone over in the morning and brought 
the body home to the mother, who never forgave herself for 
buying the gun which, was the cause of the tragedy. This 



The Story of Corpus Christi 15 

was the last Indian murder in the immediate vicinity of 
Corpus Christi. It occurred sometime in the fifties. 

If memory serves aright, it was at the house of this 
Mrs. Dolan that Captain Van Buren, before mentioned, died 
on the ninth day after being wounded. As the story goes, 
he got up that morning and asked Mrs. Dolan to make him 
some soup, saying he felt hungry. She went to do his bid- 
ding. She had almost hnished preparing the meal when his 
attendant, an enlisted man. called her to come ([uick. They 
barely got him to his bed when he breathed his last. 

Poor boy, barely a fortnight before, he with his regi- 
ment, Maryland Mounted Rifles, went on a scout after a 
band of Indians, reported nearby. They found them near 
the mouth of the N-ueces River, and had a fierce fight. Of 
this I can get no report of casualties, and only Van Buren's 
lonely tomb remains to tell the story of days which tried 
men's souls, and of the death of the young and gallant officer. 

This year of 1854 was destined to be a sad one for 
brave little Corpus Christi. A foe more deadly than painted 
savages was on its way, a foe which in that day and time 
we could not fight, sailing across our bay in open daylight, 
met with open arms it came, and deadly was its visitation. 

In the summer of that year a Mexican fruit vessel, 
peddling her cargo from port to port, touched at our wharf, 
and did a brisk business. What a boon, rich, ripe fruit to a 
people who grew nothing at home, great golden oranges, 
bunches of bananas turning from green to gold, which might 
be kept for days, lemons, limes, colossal pineapples, mangoes, 
the very air was laden with the rich odor of fruit. 

The merchants came and bought for their stores, the 
householders bought for their families, nearby rancheros 
hearing of the unusual treat, came in to get a share, the 
Mexican citizens came from the hill to hear the news and 
palabro with their countrymen. First and last, almost every 
soul in the place visited the vessel in its week's stay, and 
everyone who visited the vessel had been exposed to that 
deadliest of Southern diseases, the vomito of Mexico, yel- 
low fever of the American. 

Within two weeks the town was a fever ward, and the 
Grim Reaper gathered toll in almost every home. Mothers 



16 The Story of Corpus Christi 

were left with a family of small children, thousands of miles 
from native land or kinsmen. Fathers had to leave the little 
ones neglected while they left them to toil for food, while 
in some cases both parents were taken. Scarce a family 
escaped, but the cold weather came, or the disease died out 
for the want of new victims. The Christmas of 1854 was a 
sad holiday. Corpus Christi, the stricken, mourned its dead. 

Shortly after this a detachment of soldiers were sta- 
tioned here. Of this command I know very little, except 
they were regulars commanded by Major Chapman; his old 
headquarters, a very pretentious house for that time, still 
stands and is in possession of his descendants, who rank as 
one of the oldest families. Some of his men, at expiration of 
enlistment, remained here. One of them, an old Sergeant, 
related to me stories of the good old times of his youth, all 
forgotten except one, of a grand ball given by the enlisted 
men for the benefit of the widow of a comrade recently dead. 

Meetings were held, committees appointed, tickets pro- 
cured and sold at two dollars each, all the officers and many 
citizens purchasing. 

The next question was as to invitations. A flutter went 
down soapsuds row, and there was an overhauling of finery 
in the officers' kitchens, and the boys were told off as to 
who they were to escort to the dance. Working for one of 
the officers was a girl named Lucindy. Now Lucindy was 
no beauty, nor was she young. Although ladies were scarce, 
no one would agree to go with her. Up spoke my friend, 
the Sergeant, from the kindness of his Irish heart, "Til take 
Tushindy, bedad, and the laddie that don't dance with her 
can meet me out byant the corral after roll call tomorry 
morning." Needless to tell that for once poor Lucindy was 
the belle of the ball, and had partners to spare. A goodly 
sum was raised for the widow, the officers attended, and the 
ball was a success. 

About this time there was a little episode typical of the 
time and place. A couple of Mormon missionaries arrived 
and began to hold meetings in a warehouse on the waterside, 
for men only. Amusement was scarce and the men attended 
regularly. The meetings had been on nightly for some time, 
and the Saints felt that they were gaining ground rapidly. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 17 



This night the speaker was in the midst of an impassioned 
appeal for recruits. Suddenly he stopped as if stricken 
dumb. His jaw dropped and he stood as if petrified, but 
only for a moment. Then things began to liven up. Into 
the room marched the good wives of the congregation. 

The leading lady carried a very dead cat by the tail, this 
she brought down across the open mouth of the speaker, 
while her cohorts hurled eggs and other missiles at the pair. 
Again and again the cat descended, wielded by a strong 
arm. The Saints sought the open air in undignified haste, 
not waiting for their hats, made a wild dash for the hill, 
over its brow they went, crashing through brush, racing like 
unto wild cattle. They were known to Corpus Christi no 
more. The ladies then proceeded to dismiss the meeting, in 
which ceremony they used the remainder of the ammunition. 
The narrator, who was one of the congregation, told the 
writer that he did not return to the bosom of his family for 
several days, not until a general amnesty was declared, and 
though his hair was as the driven snow, his eye lit up with 
the fire of youth at the memory of the Mormons' last 
meeting. 

People of that day had a higher business morality than 
we of the present day, that is, they paid their debts more 
promptly, the merchants did a general credit business, and 
as far as recalled no one went "broke." Judge Fitzsimmons, 
then a young man. afterward an eiTicient County Officer, 
for years holding the office of County Judge, told the follow- 
ing story : 

"A nearby ranchero traded at the store of W. X. 
Staples, where I was at the time bookkeeper. The old fellow 
came in about twice yearly, and settled up. One day, as 
usual, he came in for his account. I called the amount, he 
hesitated awhile before taking the bill. 'No, sor. that's not 
right,' he said, laying it back on the desk, and reaching down 
into his pocket he handed out a stick covered with notches. 
*No, sor, you have charged me twinty cints too much; I'll 
not pay it.' Running his finger down the stick he counted. 
'This is ten dollars ; this is five ; one-seventy, two forty-five, 
terbacce twinty-five. ax for John, seventy-five ; one tin wash- 
pot for the old woman, two-thirty ; one dollar, what the divil ? 



18 The Story of Corpus Christi 

— Oh, yes, two gallons whiskey for Auld Jerry's wake,' and 
so on to the end of the stick. Meanwhile the clerks hunted 
and added wildly, the overcharge of twenty cents was actu- 
ally found, and the old man, who did not have a speaking 
acquaintance with the alphabet, settled up and cut a new 
stick." 

And now I come to the saddest story of all, the begin- 
ning of the Civil War. There was no telegraph in those days, 
and our mail by boat, via Indianola, was often overdue, but 
in due time the news of bombardment of Sumter came, and in 
a day the peace of not only the nation, but of our little town 
was gone. A great part of our population being of foreign 
birth, naturally supported the Government, which gave them 
liberty and protection, while others, born under a Southern 
sky, ardently espoused the cause of their people, and the sun 
which had shone so merrily as it peeped over the waves that 
morning, went sadly to bed, leaving in darkness a sadly 
divided city. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 19 



CHAPTER V. 

Civil War— 1861. 

The bugle sounded and the cavalry sprang into life. 
Drums beat the long roll and the infantry hep, hep, to the 
cortimand of its olTicers. Captain Wm. Maltby, with his 
Lieutenants McDonough and Russell, and a force of men, 
sailed over and fortified Aransas Pass. The ladies of the 
city got together and fashioned a Confederate flag. This 
flag was presented from the old Court House steps, to the 
Company of Captain Neal. The flag was presented by Miss 
Mary Woessner, who stood on the steps surrounded by her 
schoolgirl friends, all dressed in white, and the hardy war- 
riors stood ranked below, for only warriors dwelt on the 
frontier of this day. The banner was presented in a neat 
speech, which voiced the sentiment of her hearers. A new 
nation had been born ; here was her emblem. \\\ B. Wrather 
received the flag on behalf of the Company, and promised 
to carry it to victory or death. The wildest enthusiasm pre- 
vailed, and again the town was a military camp. 

The blockading fleet arrived at the two Passes, Corpus 
and Aransas, and promptly bottled Corpus Christi. Federals 
landed and established camp on the southern end of Mustang 
Island, at Corpus Pass, over which bar they brought light 
draught vessels, both armies at times visiting the Islands. 

We quote from Confederate Military History, Texas 
Volume: "On May 3, 1863. the enemy attempted to land on 
St. Joseph's Island, were repelled by small force commanded 
by Captains E. E. Hobby and B. F. Neal. Colonel A. !M. 
Hobby, Commander at Corpus Christi, reports that the men 
were exposed to heavy rain and without food. They num- 
bered sixty-four, armed with forty guns. The enemy was 
many, the three boats'coming in single file. The first launch 
was captured, with six new Sharp rifles and cartridge boxes 
and one ammunition chest. The other boats fleeing back to 
the fleet; the captured boat was dragged across the Island 
to Aransas Bay. Of more importance was the recapture of 



20 The Story of Corpus Christi 

ten bales of cotton, which had been confiscated at some point 
on the coast, by the enemy and placed there pending ship- 
ment North, for cotton sent to Mexican border meant shoes, 
clothes, food, medicines, ammunition. At that date cotton 
and gold were synonymous terms, with cotton slightly in the 
lead. To the Union Camp on Mustang went the citizens who 
refused to accept the Confederacy, where they were given 
shelter, and later transportation to New Orleans." 

I am wrong in saying that all of our foreign born citi- 
zens stood by the old flag, there were notable exceptions. Of 
names I can call to mind are the good and old names of Von 
Blucher, of same family as he of Waterloo ; Colonel Loven- 
skiold, a highly educated gentleman at one time a teacher 
here ; John Uehlinger, for many years after the war a lead- 
ing merchant ; August Ricklef sen, who died many years 
since ; Andrew Dove, a native of Bonny Scotland, and un- 
doubtedly others whom the writer did not know. The names 
mentioned are all borne today in Corpus Christi by good 
people, representative people, hence knowledge of them. 

To Corpus Pass, to run the bar for the United States 
Government, as Pilot, came one Captain Grant, and with him 
his family. After the war he remained on the Island and 
became a cattle raiser. His house became a landmark to all 
Bay folks, hunting parties and sight-seers, for its unbounded 
hospitality. The Captain and his good wife have gone to 
their reward, the children have founded homes nearer the 
haunts of men, and the old home, like the shallow Pass, is 
deserted. 

The cry of the sea bird and the moan of the wave is the 
only sound to be heard today on the spot where half a 
century ago armed men and ships kept watch on a hostile 
coast. South of Mustang Island lies Isla del Padre, rich in 
legends of pirates and buried treasure, and in years agone, 
after a storm at sea, coins might be (and were) picked up 
on the Gulf shore, Spanish coins worn smooth by the waters. 
They probably came from some long forgotten wreck, as it 
was gradually torn apart by the raging waters, mute messen- 
gers from the past, of the days when Spain held sovereignty 
of the Southern seas. This is the only treasure ever reported. 

This Father of Islands reaches southward to the Mexi- 



The Story of Corpus Christi 21 

can border, and to it came, in those days, traders willing to 
do business with either side, traders of various wares, but 
principally cattle dealers, not particular as to whose cattle, 
gathering herds on the mainland by the light of the moon, 
crossing them by fords across Laguna Madre, and selling 
them to the enemy for use of camp and fleet. The owners 
of the cattle objected to this trafific. An expedition was 
organized to capture the Mexican bandits engaged in it. 
They reached the vicinity of the camp and were carefully 
advancing when the freebooters, who had been warned by 
pickets, fired upon them from ambush, from the sandhills. 
Two men were killed by the first volley and the surprise 
threw the party into a panic. They gathered up their dead 
and began the march home. We never heard the name of 
one of the men killed. The other was Lawrence Dunn, and 
to his widow and little children came the terrible news. Mr. 
Dunn and wife, a few years earlier, had left all the comforts 
of civilization, and sought fortune in the Western wilds, and 
this was the parting of the young wife and husband, she 
alone to care for the young family. 

Truly, we of this day cannot realize w^hat the women of 
that day suffered, one long agony of suspense and fear. Later 
another scouting party went down and captured two young 
men, deserters, making their way to the enemy. They were 
brought back, tried by courtmartial, and hanged to a tree, 
near where Mesquite Street crosses the Texas-Mexican 
Railroad tracks. They were buried beneath the tree, which 
shortly died (as trees, according to tradition, do when a 
human being is hanged to their branches), and the exact spot 
where two young lives went out in dishonor was lost 
trace of. That some of the citizens did not sanction the 
findings of the Court was proven several years later, when 
the Honorable John Ireland was a candidate for Congress. 
Colonel Ireland had been in command of Corpus Christi at 
the time of the execution. During his canvass he spoke to 
a small audience here. The writer heard his denial of being 
responsible for this unfortunate happening. In his speech 
he said, "The man who says I had art or part in the death of 
these men is a liar. As Commander of this Post. I was 
ordered to see the sentence executed. As a soldier I obeyed 



22 The Story of Corpus Christi 

orders." He was a soldier and a patriot, and the fortune of 
war brought this most unfortunate episode into his hands. 
All this time the small garrison at Aransas Pass was 
holding its own against the fleet. On the i6th day of No- 
vember, 1863. Colonel Bradfute with Maltby's Company of 
Eighth Infantry and Garrett's Battalion, boarded the steamer 
Cora and attempted to rescue the garrison at that point, but 
were not able to reach them. On November 17, after a 
severe fight, the brave defenders surrendered and w^ere car- 
ried prisoners of war to New Orleans, where they remained 
until the close of hostilities. The way being open, the ves- 
sels entered the bay, and Corpus Christi was at their mercy. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 23 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Last Flag of Truce. 

Prior to this time we sent out the hist fhisj^ of truce e\er 
sent out by Confederates from here. The story was told 
me by one of the bearers of the fhig, an old Bay Captain, 
member of the Hobby Regiment at that time. This is Cap- 
tain Hawley's story : "I was ordered to get a boat and crew 
and go on a cruise with Captain Mann. I secured a little sail 
boat and a crew of two men and waited at Central Wharf 
for orders. The Captain came down, the white flag was 
raised, and we were ofif, envied by every man in sight. We 
felt jubilant, for we were to have a view of the enemy, and 
the old familiar Gulf. All went well, we reached the Pass, 
sailed boldly out and headed for the vessel on duty as 
Blockader. When within a hundred yards the order to halt 
came from her decks. W^e lowered sail. 'WHiat boat is this?' 
came next. 'Flag of truce.' answered our Captain. 'Come 
aboard,' was the next order. W^e lowered our yawl, the 
Captain took his seat, and I and one of the crew took the 
oars. We rowed to the side of the vessel and he climlied 
aboard. A sentinel on deck looked over the side and called. 
'Hey, you, com% aboard,' as he pointed his gun in our direc- 
tion, and looked fierce. W^e wonderingly obeyed, and when 
we stepped on deck the Captain was getting his. The crew 
was having fun at his expense. He was dressed as became 
a dashing cavalry officer of the South, grey uniform, soft 
hat with plume, gauntlets and silver spurs. Unchided by the 
marine officers, the sailors were making fun of the angr>- 
officer, his communication refused by the officer in command 
of the vessel, who threatened to hang the whole Rebel gang. 
About this time I saw a boat's crew going over our little 
vessel. They ran her in near shore, setting fire to her. 

"Captain Mann pointed to our little flag of peace, and 
said things about usages of civilized warfare, but was ordered 
below. ]\Iv comrade and myself were ordered into a small 
boat, where we found the remainder of our crew, one man. 



24 The Story of Corpus Christi 

We were carried to a nearby transport which landed us later 
in prison in New Orleans. I never saw Captain Mann after 
our hurried parting on ship, though he survived the war. 
Though he used lurid language, derogatory to the flag, the 
Yank and that particular crew, they did not carry out 
their threat of hanging him. After getting on the transport 
and having time to think, the ludicrous side of it struck one of 
my crew, as to the desire of Corpus Christi citizens to come 
with us. He commenced to laugh, then to roll, and we could 
only get from him, 'John Bell wanted to come, Sam wanted 
to come. Miss Brown told me to beg a little coffee from them 
for her.' His conduct attracted the notice of the crew. The 
wily fellow seeing this, kept it up, and actually got released 
and sent back to the Texas Coast as insane." 

In speaking of different men as Captain, let me explain 
that at that date almost every man you met had this prefix. 
Captains were as common here as were Colonels in Ken- 
tucky, as the greater part of our men worked on the bay, 
and had boats of various sizes and descriptions, so Private 
Hawley of Hobby's Regiment was known as Captain Haw- 
ley in civil circles. He came here just prior to the war to 
work on a dredge boat belonging to his father, who had a 
contract of opening a channel from Aransas Pass up to the 
city. This dredge was new, and its owner had placed his 
moderate fortune of about twenty-seven thousand dollars 
in it. Some of its machinery was invented by himself. At 
the beginning of trouble, the elderly owner went North, the 
son remained to keep watch o\er the boat which was laid up 
at what is known as shell bank, in Corpus Christi Bay. Later 
the enemy, on its first trip into the bay, burned her to the 
water's edge. Although the son had joined in the war with 
the South, the father was a staunch Union man, but he never 
received a cent for his loss, or the work he had done previous 
to war. The work on the channel was stopped for half a 
century. In 1910, the Bowers Dredging Company arrived 
with two dredges to deepen our channel from Aransas Pass 
to Corpus Christi. 

I find by consulting Confederate Military History, that 
the P>derals bombarded the city on August 7, 1862. That 
they must have entered by Corpus Pass is obvious as the 



The Story of Corpus Christi 25 

defenses at Aransas Pass did not surrender until the follow- 
ing day. Non-combatants had been notified to leave, and had 
gone out to camp in a grove about three miles west of town. 
There was more noise than damage to life in the assault on 
the city. One man of the Confederate cavalry was killed by a 
round shot. He fell at about the intersection of Chaparral 
and Power Streets. Many houses were struck, but being of 
adobe, not much damage was done. Fortunately no fires were 
started. Many of the shots fired in that day are still to be 
seen. Notably, two unexploded shells on the lawn of E. T. 
Merriman, on Water Street. 

Some ludicrous incidents occurred during the fight. One 
man nailed to his bed with rheumatism, in the upper story 
of a building (still standing), on the corner of Chaparral 
and Peoples Streets, refused to be moved, said he preferred 
death to the pain of being lifted to a stretcher. A round 
shot struck the house, passing a few feet above him. He 
arose with a bound, cleared the stairs in a couple of jumps, 
and led the party of belated stragglers up and over the hill, 
and got into the camp ahead of the field, and from that day 
until his death, years later, he never had a tinge of his old 
rheumatic enemy. This is true to the letter. 

A warehouse in which hides were stored was struck 
by an exploding shell, and hides filled the air. A Johnny 
Rebel legging it nearby glanced over his shoulder and yelled, 
"My God, they are shooting goat skins at us." The Con- 
federates returned the fire, but being poorly armed, did little 
harm. One battery was stationed at the foot of Belden 
Street. G. B. Williams and James McKenzie were of this 
command. Mr. Williams told me that on the night before 
the fight they were drilled, the commands being whispered, 
fearing to draw the enemy's fire, so near were they. One 
lady still with us, told me she remained under fire during the 
entire time. She was about a mile from town with her 
young sister who was very sick with fever. The phyiscian 
said to move the patient meant death, and this brave woman 
and the doctor remained by the bedside. Shot and shell fell 
in the yard, but they were unharmed. To add to her trials, 
her husband was in the beleaguered port of Aransas, which 
was surrendered the next day, and long weeks must elapse 



26 The Story of Corpus Christi 

before she could get news of his fate. He returned at the 
close of the War, and as a leading jurist and District Judge, 
was one of our most respected townsmen. Judge J. C. Rus- 
sell, pioneer and soldier, was known to all the Southwest. 

The enemy finally landed near the reef and under cover 
of the guns of the fleet, marched down and occupied the 
town, the Rebs holding the brow of the hill. The fight was 
kept up all day. The enemy having taken possession of the 
light house, then standing exactly in front of where the Col- 
ored Congregational Church now stands, posted a signal man 
in the tower, and held all north of that point. In the old 
chronicle written by an eye-witness, a pathetic incident of 
the day is related. The Confederate cavalry, hastily sum- 
moned from their camp west of town, met a man and two 
boys going out to a nearby ranch. These they arrested to 
hold until the fight was over. Tihs party had left their home 
near Salt Lake very early, knowing nothing of the immi- 
nent attack on the town. The cavalrymen told their prisoner 
that positively they were suffering with hunger. He knew 
many of them, and told them to send a man with his son 
to his house and get some bread, which was cooked. The 
soldier taking the little fellow on his horse and keeping to 
shelter of the brush, went to get the bread while his regi- 
ment moved up to the attack. He found a whole-souled 
woman at the house who gave him all the bread on hand, 
and told him she would have more baked in an hour, so 
throughout the day came the hourly messenger to carry hot 
bread to his comrades who held the line. This noble pair 
who gave food to the hungry soldiers was Mr. and Mrs. 
Priour. Their children and children's children are still with 
us, and the name stands for honesty and integrity even unto 
the third and fourth generations. Mrs. Priour was an ac- 
complished woman, and taught the only school open during 
this bitter period. When we pause to think of the scarcity 
of food, particularly breadstuff, we realize the generosity of 
the act, an unselfishness truly grand. The poor, hungry 
cavalrymen who accepted her bounty might at any time have 
laid down their guns and stepped into a land of plenty, but 
they were men of the South and of a heroism unequaled in 
history, the first people of the earth to build monuments to 



The Story of Corpus Christi 27 

defeat, and at the same time build a new South on the ruins 
of the old, and hold as strongly to their customs and tradi- 
tions in defeat as they would have done had victory blessed 
them. 

Both parties drew off at nightfall of this day of much 
fighting, barren of results. From this time the little town 
was occupied by first one and then the other. 



28 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER VII. 

A Trap for the Enemy. 

The Rebs noticed that the enemy invariably landed when 
they departed, so some Napoleon of the Art of War, laid 
a trap for the undoing of the party giving information to the 
enemy. Under cover of darkness a party of soldiers sailed 
across to Ingleside. Next morning the remaining part of the 
Garrison made a pretended departure. The party in the boat 
approached the city across the bay from the direction of the 
enemy's stronghold, beating up and down in front of the 
city, they watched for signals. The signals soon appeared. 
From the upstairs east window of the old Seaside Hotel 
(still standing) a wdiite sheet was hung. The boat stood off 
and on until the crew was sure of their man, and sailing in 
they arrested him at the wharf where he had come to meet 
them, not learning his mistake until they landed. 

The old man (I have forgotten his name) must have 
felt as did Benedict Arnold when he heard of Andre's cap- 
ture, and the feeling was made more acute by the suggestion 
of the crowd as to a just punishment. Death was the general 
verdict, the only difference of opinion being as to how. 
Everything including plain hanging was canvassed. A short 
imprisonment and a long scare was what he received. 

Tlie enemy occasionally picked up a stray Johnny and 
carried him off to prison, and once the Johnnies retaliated 
by capturing one Captain Kitterege who made himself ob- 
noxious by his too frequent visits. Later he fell into durance 
vile, while foraging for eggs and butter at Flour Bluff. I 
do not know anything more than his capture by one Captain 
Ware, who died a few years since in the Old Soldiers' Home 
at Austin. 

To a man from Northern Virginia, or the Army of 
Tennessee, our share of the War looks like the antics of 
the Home Guard, but we had just as much enthusiasm as 
had the men who stormed the heights of Gettysburg. One 
great drawback was our poverty of arms. \\'ith these in 



The Story of Corpus Christi 29 



plenty, or sufficient to give each man a gun, the enemy would 
not have raided our coast. 

1 now relate a story as it was told to me. As an Ameri- 
can, I am ashamed of it, Init inclined to believe it a com- 
panion piece to the one of the man who signalled from the 
vSeaside window. 

A company of negroes had landed in town and gone on 
a scouting trip a short distance in the country. On their 
return four of them were missing. The night passed, and 
next day and night. The Commander raved that they had 
been caught and hung by the Rebs. Coing to the prison he 
ordered the prisoners to draw lots, saying he would retaliate 
by shooting an equal number. The doomed men drew lots 
and were actually on their way to their execution when the 
four demoralized negroes appeared. They had been lost on 
the prairie. Whether the sentence would have been carried 
out, had they not returned, we cannot say. The ofificer was 
white, and we can hardly think that such extreme cruelty 
would have been resorted to, but, using the Mexican saying, 
"quien sabe." It was war times, and war is horrible, par- 
ticularly civil war. 

Our town being in an isolated i)art of the country, 
and new, we can understand that at times personal matters 
naturally crept in. and private feuds paraded as patriotism, 
but to the credit of our people, I am glad to say that with 
the exception of the two boys hanged for desertion, there 
were no executions during the entire W ar, and by all mili- 
tary law, they had forfeited their lives. 

The little fleet of bay boats gradually disapjieared. as 
the enemy burned each one as caught. Some incidents are 
told of this one-sided warfare. One Captain Sands (who 
later Inirned another boat on Corpus Reach), was chased 
down the lagoon. He had a cargo from Mexico, for Corpus 
Christi, and was attempting to steal up an inside route. See- 
ing ca[)ture was certain, he headed his boat for shore. Ha\- 
ing a bag of gunpowder on board, he laid a fuse and jumped 
olT, making his escape to cover, but the expected explosion 
did not come. Afterward he knew he had carefully laid his 
train to green coffee. 

Another, of a man who attemiUed to pass danger line in 



30 The Story of Corpus Christi 

darkness. The wind was light and he sat and steered care- 
fully all night. In the earliest dawn he noticed a familiar 
landmark as the last thing he saw when darkness fell. He 
had grounded on soft mud and had steered a standing boat 
throughout the night. Not relishing a chance at prison, he 
too waded to safety, leaving the boat to its sure fate. 

Great activity was practiced by the enemy in preventing 
the Rebs from making or gathering salt. The whole South 
suffered from need of this item, and the writer remembers 
seeing the floors of old smokehouses dug up, and a very 
dirty looking article of salt extracted from the soil. This 
was used to cure meat. The very best we could get was a 
coarse grade, but of course our own people could get salt 
for home consumption from the bay, but any attempt to boil 
in quantity on bayside was promptly attended to, and little 
bloodless brushes with the Yanks kept us busy, they coming 
and getting a few prisoners occasionally, and the town 
changing hands continually. But the end was near. Our 
troops neither received nor expected pay. Confederate money 
had gone out of circulation. The trade on the border brought 
a little specie. This, with "swapping" articles, was our 
medium of exchange. 

There were two lucky boys in the cavalry company 
near here. In the last days of the War' the command halted 
at ni^ht and made camp in what is known as the sands. Two 
of them slept on one blanket, a little apart. What was their 
surprise in the morning to find that the wind, eddying against 
their bodies, had swept the sand away, and left a little pile 
of coin exposed near their bed. One of the men told me 
that the money was Mexican dollars or coins of early date. 
That they were in small piles, one on another, as if they had 
been placed in a box and buried, though no sign of the box 
remained. The bunkies divided the find, something over 
three hundred dollars, equally, and had the envy of com- 
rades while it lasted. 

But the War was over, though we did not know it until 
some six weeks later, and the last fight of the War, the last 
gun fired for the lost cause, was on our border. In February, 
1865, General Lew Wallace, in command of Federals at 
Brazos Santiago, with Mr. Charles Worthington, a Texas 



The Story of Corpus Christi 31 

Unionist, met General Slaughter and Colonel Ford of the 
Rebel Army at Point Isabel and signed a local truce pact. 
General Wallace, to win fame in later life by writing "Ben 
Hur," proposed cessation of hostilities, saying that if every 
man of this army on both sides was killed it would not afifect 
the result: "You, Colonel I'ord, keep your men on your own 
territory and I will do the same." 

The Texans sought a spot where wood and grass were 
plenty and went into camp, keeping out a few pickets for 
form's sake. Thus a couple of months passed. On May 12. 
1865, Ford's scouts reported the enemy in their territory, at 
Palmetto Ranch, which they burned that night. Ford, never 
slow in a fight, ordered an advance, and on the 13th the 
forces met. The fight soon became a rout, as the Rebs had 
a field battery of three guns which did good service. The 
enemy lost some thirty, dead and wounded, and one hundred 
and thirteen prisoners. Getting near the Yanks' defenses. 
Colonel Ford ordered a halt, for which he was never for- 
given by his men. They wanted to go on, but the wary old 
Indian fighter smelled a trap. His officers raved, even ac- 
cusing him of white feather, but halt they did, and had not 
quit shouting till the neWs of Lee's surrender came. Why, 
or by whose order the truce was broken was never known. 
For particulars of this last fight, ofificers and commands en- 
gaged, see Confederate Military History, Texas Volume. 
History repeats, on this ground was fought the first battles 
of the Mexican W'ar and last of the War of Secession. 



32 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER VIII. 

When the War Elided. 

The War was over. The enemy marched into town and 
went into camp. Two negro regiments, officered by white 
men, were the Federal forces. The citizens were generally 
well treated as compared with other parts of the South. 
Excepting raids by the negro soldiers on hen roosts and gar- 
dens, and considerable thieving from residences, there was 
no serious trouble, though in two cases there came near 
being tragedies. A negro going into a yard for water, peeped 
into the kitchen window and saw a lady kneading bread. He 
stuck his head in and demanded a loaf. "Why," said the 
frightened woman, "It is not baked, I am just making it." To 
the woman's horror, he threw up his pistol and fired, 
knocking a great piece of plaster from the wall, then dis- 
appearing before anyone came to her aid. 

Another white woman went to a nearby cabin to carry 
food to an old negro in her employ who was sick. As she 
left the place and turned to shut the door, someone in the 
dark fired three shots into the door above her head. No 
harm was done save to the nerves of the poor near-victim. 

The officers of our re|^iments seem to have been a very 
gentlemanly lot, and being Northern bred, of course saw 
nothing wrong in commanding negroes, believing they were 
doing missionary work in learning the ex-slaves to be good 
soldiers and citizens. That they would never be the first 
has been proven time and again. Never more forcibly than 
in shooting up the city of Brownsville, a few years since, 
for the sole reason that Brownsville was in Texas. As to his 
citizenship, half a century of freedom has not proved him a 
success. 

Reconstruction was on ! Our people, as stated, fared 
well. They were mostly foreign born, and few of them 
owned slaves. Colonel John Moore, in command of a bat- 
talion camped near by, rode in to surrender and make terms 
for his men. He found headquarters of the Yankee com- 



The Story of Corpus Christi ' 33 

mander established in his residence, still standing on North 
Water Beach. What bitter thoughts must have passed 
through the mind of the old Southerner, a scholar and a 
gentleman to his fingertips, to enter the door around which 
his children had played in happy childhood, where he had 
ever been met by the smile of a wife and greeting of kins- 
men, a prisoner, willing to meet his fate, asking for himself 
nothing, for his men best terms which might be granted. 

The Commander, 1 am glad to say, was a soldier. He 
refused the Colonel's sword, telling him it was the fortune 
of war, and to meet defeat as bravely as victory, and com- 
plimented the Southern Army. He told him the terms of 
surrender and invited him to consider this his home and 
he (the Yankee) as the guest. I am sorry I cannot give the 
name of this noble officer, whose words of sympathy to his 
vanquished foe were above jewels to the broken man. Yester- 
day a capitalist, today a stranger in his home, slaves freed 
and the ruins of a tine dredge boat nearby. 

Colonel Moore came to Corpus Christi to finance and 
aid in a scheme to make a great seaport here, and if the 
War had not interfered the chances are that we, and not 
Cialveston, would have been the earliest seaport, and the 
story of the great storm in Galveston, in which thousands 
lost their lives, would have remained untold. The Colonel 
brought his family back to the old home and he and his 
loval)le wife spent the remaininf^ years of their lives with us. 
The story of his surrender was told to the writer by his 
daughter. Mrs. Conklin, for years a teacher in our schools. 
She remembered vividly the early days of the War, and a 
certain red silk dress of hers which was used to give color to 
a Rebel flag which the patriotic ladies fashioned, perhaps the 
one presented by Miss \\'oessner. afterwards Mrs. W'. R. 
W rather. 

The white officers of the colored regiments formed a 
club and set up a mess hall in a house, yet standing on the 
lot adjoining and north of the Methodist Church, on Mes- 
quite Street, and honestly curbed as far as possible the out- 
lawry of their command. As the citizens did not hold the 
bitterness of other sections of the South, they soon became 
quite an acquisition to the society of the little town. Sc^me 



34 The Story of Corpus Christi 

of the married men brought their families, and in the return 
of prosperity the War was ahnost forgotten. The negro at 
that time was an unknown quantity to the Northern people. 
The officers were soon disillusioned. 

But good women came to West Texas, just as they go 
to Africa today, burning with zeal to do the work of the 
Master, and to help those poor people over which the abo- 
litionist had howled for years. They came, they saw, they 
fled. Uncle Tom's Cabin on the stage and Uncle Rastus' 
Cabin on the Nueces was different. Besides, the negro had 
no respect for "No poor white trash what 'sociate with nig- 
gers," but they started fair. The Congregational Church, 
which stands near the site of the old light house, was built 
for both w^hite and black worshipers. A very few whites 
attended for a while and then it was given over to the negro. 
The ground upon which it stands has grown to be very 
valuable, but the Northern Society who own it refuse to sell. 
The members of the present day are a very orderly, quiet 
people, not given to holding all-night sessions as are their 
more tuneful Methodist and Baptist brethren, who have been 
bought out and moved out of sounding distance. And may 
the old church stand for many years, mute monument of 
the days gone by, and failure of fanatics to force social 
equality on a stricken people. 

But the War was over ! The troops held on the border 
awaiting developments in Mexico were disbanded when news 
of Maximilian's death came. Good-byes were said to the 
enemies who had become friends, and Johnny went march- 
ing home. But two of the handsomest young officers were 
held prisoners of war, and watched their comrades go, held 
as firmly and securely as was President Davis in his prison 
cell in Fortress Monroe, and our grateful Government never 
demanded their release, nor did they ever once attempt to 
escape, for the bonds were silken and the captors two fair 
daughters of the South. They became of the South, veritable 
South Texans, living the remainder of their days in the 
South : Captain E. H. Wheeler and Captain Barnes Down- 
ing, both of whom have answered the last roll call, their 
deaths regretted keenly by all who knew them. 

Right here I want to say that various reasons have been 



The Story of Corpus Christi 35 

given as to a better feeling existing between the Xorth and 
South, the Spanish-American War being one reason as- 
signed. That is not the cause of this feeHng, nor is it the 
lapse of time, for the Southerner has a retentive memory. 
Acquaintance is the cause. The people of Northern birth 
who simply thought they were taking their lives in their own 
hands when they came South, found differently, made 
friends and intimacy begot respect. If we had been ac- 
quainted we might never have fought, but we did fight, and 
as Americans, I believe we are a little proud of the scrap. 
It w-as such a war as none but Americans could have waged, 
and ended as never a war before. We all went home and 
to work to make up for lost time. 

True, the Ku Klux Klan gave a little trouble, but a 
great good was done by them in wresting the vState from 
negro rule. Corpus Christi being out of the black zone, did 
not have a Klan, but there w^ere thirty thousand in the State. 
The writer, at that time in Houston, began to hear strange 
stories from the negro cook. Even though common sense 
told us it w^as a trick, it gave us an uncanny feeling. Nightly 
sights were seen by colored church-goers, and more par- 
ticularly by colored attendants of political meetings. The 
recital of them caused creepy feelings. A couple of old 
covered forts on Buffalo Bayou seemed favorite stamping 
grounds for spooks. Imagine a crowd of darkies coming 
home from a perfectly orderlji meeting, held nightly, for 
the purpose of finding where to get forty acres of land and 
a mule, and getting no nearer an understanding than that in 
the event of election of certain Carpetbaggers, they would get 
both mule and land, and a pension, reported of various 
amounts. 

Imagine the meeting closed after an almost all night 
session, and the crowd going home in a body. Out of the 
fort issued groans, unearthly cries ; out pops a man all in 
white, without a head, another with both arms missing, an- 
other whose white clothes are covered with blood, while 
flames issue from the mouth and eyes of a black fellow. 

Another, but nobody to see more of the sights; a Gilpin 
race is on, and no threat or entreaty will get a darkey out 
after nightfall. 



36 The Story of Corpus Christi 



Nobody wants a mule, meetings deserted, and the white 
man comes into his own, a bloodless victory ! 

The writer heard the fearsome stories in the kitchen, 
and repeated them to a grave-faced man who headed the 
table, also the house. He had followed Lee and limped as 
a result. He seemed to take great interest in the recitals, 
and long afterward the writer knew that the husband took 
a little time from his numerous lodge meetings to go to spook 
festivals in the old fort, in which there had never been a 
gun fired nor a man hurt ; and in later years he told of the 
fun and of the "wailing cry of distress." Don't think it was 
ever published, this way of giving the signal, drawing up 
right arm and striking out as if dealing a blow, you called, 
"I'm Sampson, I'm Sampson." At the peril of your life, if 
you were a Sampson, you must rush to his rescue. 

A strange item in the Houston Post caught my eye a 
year or so ago. Nothing less than a call to arms of the old 
Klan to clear the city of thugs and murderers. Poor old 
man who made this call ! The men who rid the State of 
negro rule so many years ago, and who kept the secret to 
death, are gone, and their like will be seen no more. 

Every effort was made by officers of the Government 
to catch the Ku Klux Klan, but every man on the police 
force was a member. One night the news got out that a 
sleuth, a Federal Captain, had scared all the secrets from 
a badly frightened member. He and a couple of detectives 
would visit the lodge and get evidence, the scared member 
planning to give the boys a little exercise. They came masked 
took three extra seats in the room, the only vacant ones by 
the way, that were not numbered ; every member had a 
number and sat in the chair with the corresponding number. 
To their surprise they were bound, carried down the stairs 
and to the banks of the bayou, where the sentence pro- 
nounced before leaving the hall was to be executed. Weight- 
ed by the neck, they were to go into twenty feet of muddy 
water. How they pleaded. After much deliberation and 
wrangling they were spared, and if either or all of them are 
living to this day, I doubt if even yet they could see the 
joke, or know that not a man there would have had a hand 
in murder, and were all most prominent citizens. That 



The Story of Corpus Christi 37 

crimes were committed by masked men and laid at the door 
of the Klan is true, but the members were a high-minded 
people and never a crime was committed by the sworn mem- 
bers. They took this method of saving the South from the 
crying disgrace of negro rule by working on their super- 
stition. 

Early memories recall the first bicycle ever brought to 
Corpus Christi, two of them in 1869, and every lady turned 
out to see them on a Sunday afternoon, and the merry riders 
were invited to stop at every beer joint and refresh. Xo 
Sunday law those days ! Perhaps for that reason they had 
to climb on a fence to mount, and led a very wobbly way 
down Preston Street. 

And the first ball game! The umpire carried a hand- 
book, and when a chap swatted the ball, grabbed him by the 
shoulder and trotted him to first. The girls came out and 
walked past, and watched from nearby galleries, never 
dreaming that in the years to come ladies would go to ball 
games, and one of them at least would give up good money 
for the privilege of watching a game, and feel a taste of 
heaven when her team won and a strong smell of the other 
place if they lost. 



38 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER IX. 

First Carpetbagger Governor. 

Corpus Christi bears the doubtful honor of having given 
up the only Carpetbagger Governor who ever misruled 
Texas. E. J. Davis left Corpus Christi to fill the Governor's 
chair, and notwithstanding his reputation throughout the 
State, he was liked at home. A polished gentleman as to 
manners, a diligent and willing nurse in the fever epidemic 
of '67, he visited the homes of the lowly, putting his hand 
to the work as it came. An old friend of mine remembers 
him with gratitude. He came to her assistance and with his 
own hands helped to lift a dying sister to a cot, and helped 
carry it a distance of three blocks that the sister might spend 
her last moments with her mother, who was also low with 
the fever. 

But he went to Austin, the choice of the Carpetbagger, 
and Corpus Christi knew him no more. On the night before 
the departure of his family, a lovely moonlight night, Mrs. 
Davis walked with a friend on Broadway, in front of the 
Davis home, yet standing with its old-fashioned dormer 
windows. 

That the moonlight begets strange fancies we all know, 
but the old moon was more fantastic than usual that night, 
and the proud woman, starting on a journey to public 
obloquy, dreamed dreams. She told her friend that this 
journey was only the first step to the White House, and to 
this moon craziness only can we ascribe future events. 

Texas was under negro rule, who were led by unscrupu- 
lous white men. The law was a dead letter, and only that 
the former slaves had a fear of, and respect for former own- 
ers, did the white race escape untold horrors. As it was the 
situation was bad enough. Murders were committed and 
towns were placed under martial law and compelled to .pay 
immense sums of money. When the right of franchise was 
granted to ex-Rebs, those ofificers and gentlemen were forced 
to register before negro officials. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 39 



Many of them, like Hiick I'inn's father, (Icclared they 
would not vote, but better counsel prevailed, and vote they 
did, early and often, and not only this, but \oted the negro 
with them ; not with the negro's consent, but he had been 
told to vote the blue ticket, and he Noted without knowing 
that the white man's ticket had lieen printed on their exact 
shade of blue paper. The story goes that when the result 
was heard in Austin, Governor Davis wildly telegraphed to 
General Grant to send troops to sul)due the wild and woolly 
Texans, but that great and truly good man refused to inter- 
fere, and down from the wall came his picture, and the lady 
of the mansion put her foot through it. l'',xit I'. J. Da\is 
from the Texas horizon. Sound the loud timbrels from 
desert to sea ! Texas had triumphed and her people were 
free after fi\e years of sheol. What wonder that we got 
a reputation. 

There were some scores which could be wiped out in 
blood only. Mrs. Davis was a daughter of the South, and 
1 am told that her family were Southerners. One, a Captain 
F.ritton, a Confederate surgeon, died here in the epidemic of 
'07, and the family name is perpetuated by the Britton- 
Motts. They were of tlic earliest settlers, and I have heard 
that her father was a Colonel in the regular army. A family 
of high standing, and we will lay it all to moon madness 
flnd let it go at that. 

No man or woman either knew at that day that in less 
♦han half a century these bleeding, conquered people would 
»ihine throughout the world as something new in history, 
who. by their industry and thrift would build a new South. 
Hands unused to toil grasped the plow and wrung wealth 
from the bosom of old mother earth. Trades, hitherto 
despised (no aristocratic .Southerner thought of a trade for 
his sons, nor would he ha\e allowed him to learn one), were 
fostered, and with the aid of the dollars of our Northern 
Ijrother, who was willing to swap them for a part of the 
rich land, an era of prosperity came, and men and women 
look back to those days with pride, though they were tinged 
with horror. 

But back to Corpus Christi again. In July of 18O7, ^ 
man came to Corpus Christi on horseback from Indianola, 



40 The Story of Corpus Christi 

crossing the reef on the wagon road, and entering town put 
up at the largest hotel, the Ziegler House. Next day he was 
sick, and the kind-hearted people visited him, and as was the 
custom of that day, nursed him. Less than thirty-six hours 
later he was a corpse, and the dread yellow jack was feeling 
his way into every home. Within ten days he was holding 
the poor little helpless town in his relentless grasp, and the 
scenes of '54 were again being enacted. The daily, twice, 
thrice pilgrimages to the old cemetery, until one day in 
August there was a death rate of eighteen. In a white popu- 
lation of scarce four hundred, whole families died. In two 
cases in the new Catholic Cemetery, recently opened, hus- 
band and w^ife were found buried in the same grave. Of 
these couples, one left two little girls. A gentleman present 
at the time told me that the saddest sight of the time was 
these little ones getting up in the morning and hunting for 
their parents through the house and yard. Both had died 
during the night and had been removed to await burial. But 
thank God for the Christian faith of our people, the orphans 
were cared for and none were neglected ! 

One of our greatest losses in this epidemic was the 
death of our War-time Priest, Father Canard. He had re- 
mained with his people during the bitter days of the War, 
aiding the women and children, keeping a little school, Mrs. 
Priour's, cheered and helped by his presence and advice. 
When the fever came he worked day and night, not only 
with his own people, but with any who needed help. He 
died as he had lived, literally in harness. Died, no ! He went 
to his rest, mourned by every man, woman and child in 
Corpus Christi, of every faith, for Father Canard was a 
Saint who loved mankind, and like many of his kind, went 
to his reward, with the noble character of his deeds known 
only to his narrow surroundings. But today the eye of the 
gray-haired man or woman who knew him will light with 
love when they hear his name, and everyone can tell of some 
simple childish pleasure which he had given. Anything of 
interest to them, was never too small to engage the learned 
Father's attention. One woman told me this story. Her 
hair was white, but she remembered her very first pair of 
shoes. Her mother got them for her. She took the lovely 



The Story of Corpus Christi 41 

things to show to Father Ganard, as the modern miss would 
exhibit a watch or a locket. He duly admired, then sug- 
gested fitting them, but the poor little feet must be washed, 
and three times were they scrubbed before Father agreed 
they would do. Then stockings must be had, and home again 
she went, leaving the precious shoes with the Father. Back 
again, and another wash to take ofif the recent travel stains, 
the good Leather advising and helping. She was shod, a girl 
of ten, for the first time, and felt as if 'T could never take a 
step," she said. I thought of this incident a short time since, 
seeing a mother purchase a pair of shoes for her daughter. 
The latter day mother paid four dollars for the shoes, and 
had the clerk mark the price at six, telling me the daughter 
would not wear the shoes if they cost less. But times change, 
and perhaps it is better to wear shoes at six per pair than 
no shoes at all. But I am old-fashioned, and think what was 
lacking in shoes in those days, was made up into man and 
woman, and human kindness. Father Ganard sleeps in the 
Catholic Cemetery here, and we love to think of him as a 
Southerner, but he was too good and great to belong to one 
section, and his memory is a heritage of all. 



42 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER X. 

Some Early Day Merchants. 

Just after the close of hostilities the merchants came 
back, and with them new ones to establish business here. 
Pat Whelan, for nine terms Sheriff of Nueces County, and 
one of the most efficient officers in the State, gives me the 
following list of merchants in business here at the time he 
came in 1866: E. Morris, J. B. Mitchell, George Evans, P. 
Hoffman, W. N. Staples, Felix Noessel, John Woessner, P. 
Doddridge, banker, C. Kale, and then or shortly after there 
was William Headen, afterwards Headen & Mallory, and 
M. Lichtenstein, a dry goods merchant, whose sons today 
have the largest store in the city, or as for that matter, in 
this section, and which would be a credit to the largest city in 
the State. Money was plentiful in those days. Bags of 
silver and golden eagles were the medium of exchange. No 
paper money for the trader in that time. 

Just about the close of the hostilities a party of horse 
traders visited the lower country, buying a great drove of 
animals. They paid in notes on defunct Confederacy. The 
news went out that paper money was no "bueno," and to 
this day no Mexican wants green backs, checks or anything 
but hard money. About this time the \\'estern Union Tele- 
graph Company erected a line to Brownsville via Corpus 
Christi. So eager were our people to get the news that the 
line came in as the crow flies, across lots. This gave our 
city trouble later when telephone and electric wires came, but 
all is satisfactorily arranged now, each company having its 
territory specified. 

The next thing of importance to shake the city was the 
proposal to build the Texas-Mexican Railroad from here to 
the border, at Laredo. Meetings were held, and strange as 
it may seem now, the project was hotly opposed by some 
good citizens. What ! Do away with our wagon trade ! 

Never . Even up to recent years the writer has heard 

some of the old-timers bewail the new times, and thev never 



The Story of Corpus Christi 43 

realized that if we did not build the road, other towns would. 
Our wagon trade was doomed, and the long line of wagons, 
with their picturesque drivers, who had broken and kept the 
trail for nearly two centuries, were soon to make their last 
journey across boundless prairies where the bison, the elk 
and the deer roamed free. They, like the wagons, were 
doomed. The buffalo is extinct in his wild state, though forty 
years ago the writer purchased dried buffalo flesh from gro- 
cery stores in Corsicana, and saw wagons fitting out to go 
on hunt for his hide. 

A promoter by the name of Uriah Lott planned our 
first railroad, and Captain Richard King of Rancho Santa 
Gertrudis financed the project for the first forty miles. Cap- 
tain King was at this time one of the wealthiest men in this 
section. His herds grazed upon thousands of acres of free 
domain. He operated, and with his then partner. Captain 
Kenedy, owned one or more steamboats on the Rio Grande. 

Captain King stood for progress, and his presence in 
this section was a public boon. In those days herds were 
driven overland to Kansas to market, and King and Kenedy 
were perhaps the largest shippers of the State. During the 
War the enemy made a special raid from Brazos Santiago to 
his ranch home to capture him. He wa^ absent, but in the 
early morning light they saw a man on the gallery, and 
without warning shot the faithful servant to death, thus 
showing their fear of the man they sought. His life reads 
like a romance, and if told to the letter, would not be 
credited. » 

One story I will tell as it was printed in the Corpus 
Christi paper at the time. The Captain had been in Corpus 
Christi, and while here hired a newly landed German boy to 
drive his coach. The party left the city and drove out to 
the Petronilla Creek, stopping for lunch on the near side of 
the stream, contrary to usual custom of pulling up opposite 
bank before stopping. After an hour's rest they started on 
the last half of the journey, and as they breasted the oppo- 
site slope, were fired on from ambuscade. The poor Dutch 
boy ended his journey right there, being killed instantly. 
The spirited horses, scared by the shots, ran away, but fortu- 
nately kept to the road. Out of the brush rode four Mexi- 



44 The Story of Corpus Christi 

cans and gave wild chase, but the ranch was reached with no 
further loss. Next day when officers reached the spot of 
attack they found that the scheme had been well laid. The 
men had posted themselves in easy range and cut away all 
intervening twigs so as to command the usual shade where 
travelers stopped. Only the stopping short of the usual 
place saved the party from swift death. This was only one 
of his hairbreadth escapes, but he did escape his wily ene- 
mies, the Mexicans, who did not want white men in the 
grazing country, and were the direct opposite of Captain 
King. They were prepared to fight progress, are fighting it 
today in the Rio Grande Valley, but like the buffalo, their 
day is done, and go they must. 

Captain King died some years since in San Antonio, sur- 
rounded by his family and loving friends, and was buried 
in that city. His former partner. Captain Kennedy, died a 
few years later in Corpus Christi. He sleeps in Brownsville, 
where the murmur of the Rio Grande sings solemn requiem 
to the memory of a man who made history on her bosom. 
The names of King and Kenedy will be remembered as 
long as English and Spanish are spoken on the border. 

About this time there was much trouble in the adjacent 
country from raids of Mexican freebooters, the natural 
aftermath of civil war. On both sides of the Rio Grande 
robbery and murder were frequent, and men and boys going 
out to drive in the milch cows buckled on a six-shooter or 
carried a gun. One sad day four coffins were carried to 
the cemetery in wagons draped in black. These young men 
were found murdered at a ranch on Laguna Madre, two of 
them German boys who had only gone down there a few 
days earlier to do some carpenter w'ork. Their tool boxes 
had never been opened, showing that the robbers must have 
arrived about the same time they reached the ranch, Penes- 
gal by name, owned, we believe, b)' Captain Kenedy. The 
Sheriff's posse who went out to investigate, found that rob- 
bery was the motive. Among other booty a sugar barrel had 
been emptied. A broad trail led southward, along which 
every little way a little spot of brown sugar was seen, as if 
carried in a slightly leaky package. Southward into the 
Brownsville road the trail was lost, all except the sugar pats, 



The Story of Corpus Christi 45 

and these led on to Corpus Christi, and to a hut on the hill, 
where the remainder of the sugar and other booty was 
found. The sugar sack was found with a small hole in it. 
Needless to say, this gang was rounded up and Judge Lynch 
held a long session. 

An old man living west of town made a pfjor li\ing by 
drawing and selling water to passing teamsters. One night 
his neighbors on the Oso saw his house in flames. They 
hurriedly mounted and rode to his help. On getting in sight 
they saw a party of horsemen riding off. Next day the 
charred remains of the old man were found in his house, 
bound with trace chains, showing undoubtedly tliat he had 
l^een burned alive. This man's name was Murdock. 

On the morning of Good Friday, 1875, a wild, inco- 
herent messenger arrived in Corpus Christi. The Indians 
were right at his heels, he said, and had murdered every soul 
between here and the Nueces River and had burned every 
ranch. There was a wild scurry on ever}^ hand. The Indian 
raid was a certainty. The band was discovered some twenty 
miles from the city, all mounted. They took charge of 
everyone they met, taking their horses and compelling pris- 
oners to march on foot. Coming to Nuecestown, then called 
the Motts, they attacked the only store, conducted by Mr. 
Noakes. The owner barricaded the door and fought them 
off until they set the place on fire. Then he and his family 
escaped by a secret passage made for just such an emer- 
gency. The store was burned to the ground, though the 
robbers secured some loot. This was proven later. Coming 
on toward town, they arrived at Juan Saens (pronounced 
Whan Size) Ranch, fi\ e miles west of the city. Here the 
Mexican family of that name met them. One of the boys 
of the ranch spoke to the robbers, and quick as a flash he 
was shot, falling dead in his tracks. It is supposed that the 
boy recognized the robber. Here the bandits held a con- 
sultation, they learned that a messenger liad reached the 
city, so they turned back, still marching their prisoners in 
the middle of the road. Among them was Miss Allen, who 
with an old gentleman. Judge Gilpin, was driving in to at- 
tend Easter service in the Episcopal Church; Mrs. E. D. 
Sidburv, her daughter-in-law, Mrs. James Scott, with driver 



46 The Story of Corpus Christi 

and maid, and many others whose names I do not recall. 
After going some distance the robbers rode off and left the 
prisoners, after taking everything of value which they had. 
including their shoes. The ladies hid in a corn field, afraid 
for a long time to answer the calls of a rescuing party, 
thinking the bandits had returned. On Skidmore's Ranch 
the women, one with an infant six months old, now Mrs. 
Bibolette of Palestine, hid in an arroyo. When their men 
came to hunt them with shouts and shots, they trembled and 
kept still. One of the men had a bright idea, and they began 
singing hymns. One of the ladies told me that she had heard 
fine singing, but never anything to compare with the grand 
old "Nearer My God to Thee," as it came floating over the 
prairie in the gloaming. The cowboys were rewarded by 
calls, and the poor women ended a bitter experience. 

In the meantime, what was happening in Corpus 
Christi t There was a military company here, the Star 
Rifles. It was said of them that they led the way to Central 
Wharf and aboard the Morgan Line Steamer, Josephine, 
which happened to be in that day, ready to defend women 
and children. The schooner Leona, belonging to N. Gussett, 
was also in. and various small boats. The whole population 
went to the boats ready to go at a moment's notice. A com- 
pany of brave men mounted their steeds and away to meet 
the marauders. They found that they had retreated and 
followed. They came upon them and received their fire. 
One man named Swank was shot dead from his horse. 
Fearing an ambush the party halted and the enemy re- 
treated unmolested. Mr. Swank was a young man, a car- 
penter, who had lived several years in Corpus Christi. His 
comrades brought his body back to the old cemetery, and 
a few years since a friend of his youth, Mrs. Helen Dority, 
had a neat tablet placed over his last resting place. Only 
this friend remembered the man who died in defense of the 
town in which he had neither kith nor kin. Later the trail 
was taken up again by a reinforced party, and strange to 
say, the trail led to nearby ranches. One young Mexican 
had a gunshot wound in his arm, wrapped in a towel, recog- 
nized as one taken from a looted store at the Motts. Truth 
compels me to say that Judge Lynch again held court, and 



The Story of Corpus Christi 47 

I am afraid that he this time worked on the theory that it is 
better that ninety and nine innocent ones suffer than one 
guilty man escape. They no doubt intended to loot Corpus 
Christi. but their hearts failed as they got near. The}^ kept 
the prisoners to keep them from spreading the news. They 
learned at Juan Saens that a messenger had brought the 
news in, as he passed that point on a dead run, had discov- 
ered the raid near Motts, and they were afraid to risk a 
battle. This was the last raid in our vicinity, the raiders 
being discovered as our own Mexicans and not Indians from 
up the Rio Grande, as was first supposed. 



48 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER XI. 

The Author Reaches Corpus Christi. 

The writer first saw Corpus Christi in May, 1876. In 
those days Corpus Christi was reached by a weekly steamer 
from New Orleans, a mailboat from Indianola or a stage 
from San Antonio. We came via Indianola, and missing 
the mailboat at that place, remained over one night. This 
was the year after the first great storm, and some feeble 
attempt had been made to straighten up the half destroyed 
houses. Naturally, the people who had spent their lives 
there tried to look at the bright side, saying this was the 
first and likely the last sto^m. Fortunately the city did not 
recuperate, fortunate because they were again and again 
visited by destructive storms, and just eleven years later the 
town was entirely obliterated, the flames aiding the wind 
and water in the fearful and fatal dance of death, and today 
the cry of the seabird and the lap of the tide are the only 
sounds to break the silence. A few scattered concrete cis- 
terns, heaps of brick marking the site of chimneys, is all 
that remains of a once prosperous town, where lovers wooed, 
children played, and a bright future promised, a fine harbor, 
a new railroad and a rich country nearby. 

An old town too it was, as towns rank in Texas, and 
many of the early settlers of interior towns bade farewell 
to the great waters there. To get near to this harbor the 
town was founded on sand, a very low point of land running 
out from the hills, seven miles distant, to meet the waters, 
and between the hills and the beach was a low marsh, always 
overflowed at high tide, a veritable death trap, as are too 
many of our coast towns today. But we will not mention 
names for fear of giving ofifense. People who found their 
houses on sand do not like to hear the subject discussed, 
more certainly if they are in the real estate business. 

We boarded a small boat, "Star of the South," with 
Captain Sewell, and leaving Indianola in the morning ar- 
rived next morning in Corpus Christi. Sailing across the 



The Story of Corpus Christi 49 

bay and watching our future home across the sparkling 
water, I thought of a vision of Heaven. The beautiful wood- 
covered blufif with its two church spires, Congregational 
(colored) and Presbyterian (old), were the first visible ob- 
jects. No smokestacks in those days, no steam whistles! A 
perfect picture in a perfect setting was the Corpus Christi 
of May, 1876. Near the beach I noticed a little garden. 
Everything looked so bright and green. The corn was in 
roasting ear, while in Central Texas from where we had 
come it was just peeping above the ground. We bade good- 
bye to Captain Sewell, who had lived all his life on the 
water, and who was destined later to find a grave 'neath the 
waters of the Gulf. He, with his boat, was lost while coast- 
ing up from Point Isabel to Rockport, and his body was 
never found, nor any trace of his boat, one of the long list 
of lost at sea. 

Walking up Chaparral Street I saw that thoroughfare 
literally filled with ox carts and wagons. Some of the ve- 
hicles had as many as six yokes of oxen, and the patient 
animals were lying down in a seeming tangle, reaching from 
curb to curb, chewing the cud and waiting the crack of the 
whip, the signal to begin the long, hot journey across the 
prairies to and beyond the Mexican border, carrying in 
their wake a whifif of civilization. Clothes, shoes, hats, cook 
stoves, sewing machines, oil lamps, clocks, any and every- 
thing, bought with proceeds of sales of hides, tallow, dried 
meat, wool, etc. It seemed to me that everybody spoke Span- 
ish, and that the only swift thing in evidence was their 
tongues. To every new-comer the language seemed to be 
a perfect rapid fire jangle of words, but right here I got 
my first lesson in Spanish Aztec. The only word I could 
distinguish seemed like "star wano." Everybody seemed to 
be saying it. After thirty years I think it is the proper word 
and should be our motto, typical of our people. Through 
sunshine and shadow, days of prosperity, days of depres- 
sion, the cheery word was ever in evidence, and over our 
portals in letters of gold should be written Esta Bueno. 
The words fit our city, our country, and if not our people 
it is because the motto is hardly strong enough. We would 



50 The Story of Corpus Christi 

have to cull all the languages, getting the best from each, 
and then fall short of fully expressing our respect for our 
old citizens. Though we may differ in politics, religion and 
various items of public import, we are closely allied on all 
matters of civic and personal interest. 

The Corpus Christi of that day and time was a town 
of considerable wealth, many stockmen making their homes 
here. Our little weekly paper. The Free Press, carried two 
of its four pages covered with hieroglyphics, illustrating 
cattle brands and notices to the general public that they 
would feel the strong arm of the law if cattle bearing these 
brands were killed. To those notices there was one notable 
exception. At the foot of one column of marks and brands 
stood the usual notice, but it read different. It was an in- 
vitation to any poor person, anyone in need, to kill and use 
for food any calf in above brand, the only proviso being that 
they save the hide and use the meat. Think of it in our 
day and time, when meat in our local markets is a little 
higher priced than in the Northern cities. The name signed 
to this invitation was one of which Texas may well be 
proud, John Timon of San Patricio, a pioneer who helped 
make this country ; a man whose charity was as broad as the 
prairie over which he hunted his herds, and as beautiful as 
the flowers which blossomed thereon. He obeyed the Scrip- 
tural injunction and got his guests from the highways. His 
friends had cattle and to spare. The poor, improvident 
Mexican was the recipient of this grand largess. 

The sheep industry was at its apex at this time and a 
great many rancheros were in that business. Strange to 
say there was no friction between the sheep and cowman 
such as have disgraced other sections of the Southwest, but 
the removal of the tariff off raw wool killed the sheep busi- 
ness and we went back to longhorns, grazing in common on 
the unfenced land. Naturally the herds got tangled and 
our District Court ran overtime settling ownership of cat- 
tle, a golden era for the lawyers of that day. But about 
this time Glidden invented barbed wire fencing. The coun- 
try was soon covered with a network of it, and for years 
there has not been a case in court growing out of ownership 



The Story of Corpus Christi 51 

of cattle, and the animal known as the MaAcrick is as com- 
pletely extinct as the buffalo. 

The longhorn was superseded by blooded stock, the 
festive cowboy has doffed his jingling spurs and high-heeled 
boots, and his trusty six-shooter is covered with rust. The 
old days, the old boys, and general picturesque setting has 
gone, and the places that knew him. will know him no more. 



52 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Man With the Hoe. 

The man with the hoe next began to arrive and made 
a feeble attempt at farming, but the drought discouraged 
him. Next a couple of German farmers arrived, rented a 
piece of ground near town, and hauled water w^ith which to 
set cabbage plants. No rain fell and no water ever touched 
the field except the one time, and this cabbage patch was the 
talk of not only the town but this section, and we learned 
that the finest of cabbage would thrive. That cabbage nur- 
tured on the near coast dews was of superior quality. Then 
we all planted cabbage and became the largest cabbage mart 
in the world. Solid train loads of this vegetable went to 
hunt the corned beef of the East and North. The farmer 
jingled coin in his pocket. Then the winter of 1900 ar- 
rived, and with it the 13th of February, the coldest day 
ever recorded in Texas. Thousand of birds flying ov.er 
Nueces Bay, north of town, were frozen, and falling into 
the bay, were swept to the southern shore by the fierce 
Norther raging, where they lay in a long windrow, in some 
places several feet deep. From the tiny robin to the great 
crane, all kinds were there. Fish were torpid and came to 
shore in schools, but this cold was unprecedented, and man 
as well as fish and fowl felt the Arctic weather and kept 
close to the fireside. On the morning of the 14th. the grow- 
ing cabbage looked as if it had been permaturely boiled. A 
view of the landscape looked like ruin to the planter. In 
desperation he sought a later crop. 

The only thing possible so late in the season was cotton. 
This was an experiment. Cotton was planted in between 
cabbage rows. The cabbage revived, made a fine crop, 
which brought a big price. Later the fields were white 
with the snowy staple, and the farmer jingled money in both 
pockets. Since that time we have learned that we can 
grow almost anything, and are certain that we are on the 
eve of great agricultural prosperity, and in a few years 



The Story of Corpus Christi 53 



will be shipping solid trains of citrus fruits to the Eastern 
markets. Where gins are now established, ginning at times 
the bale-to-the-acre cotton, a few years ago no man would 
have thought of putting a dollar in a gin in this cottonless 
country. 

The Aransas Pass Railroad was the second to reach 
our town and put us in touch with the United States, as the 
Texas-Mexican had placed us in close communion with our 
sister Republic. When our railroad was first built into 
Mexico we had several large excursions in from there. As 
our hotel room was limited, the citizens received the excur- 
sionists in our homes, got up boat races, ball games, and 
gave at least two grand balls, all free, in their honor. But, 
but. BUT, while they were a good people, polite in the ex- 
treme, they were not our style, no more than were we theirs, 
so we give them welcome and let them hunt their own domi- 
ciles henceforth, which seemed to give satisfaction to all 
parties concerned. 

At an early day we equipped a ball team, but haxing no 
one to play but Rockport the sport languished. As soon as 
the railroad put us in touch with San Diego and Alice we 
re\ i\cd, and had some famous games on the diamond at the 
intersection of Chaparral and Fitzgerald Streets. The 
writer, along with the balance of the population, attended 
regularly. We remember one game between the Uniques 
of San Diego and our team which went merrily on the 
whole afternoon. Each side rolled up a score of twenty- 
four, and the game was declared a draw. Proudly the two 
teams marched into town, side by side. Nobody's feelings 
were hurt that day. Again we were playing. Corpus Christi 
at the bat, one man down, one on first and one at bat. The 
batter hit and ran for first, man on first ran for second, 
changed his mind and legged it back in time to meet batter 
at first. Both claimed base and ])roceeded to settle this 
dispute according to Marquis of Tipperary rules, much to 
the delight of the crowd. During the rather heated dis- 
cussion both were touched out, retiring the side. Later we 
organized two teams, the BluiT City's and Corpus Christi 
Browns. What battles were fought on that diamond, and 
what feeling expressed by the partisans. The Blufifs regu- 



54 The Story of Corpus Christi 



larly held the victory. They had a famous pitcher, and no 
inducement could win him away from his team. Poor Frank 
Larkin, soon to go down to death under his engine in 
Mexico, one of nature's noblemen and one of the first and 
best ball players in Southwest Texas. 

Of the old Browns I remember a few names : Johnny 
Mitchell, Lee and Henry Berry, Hiram and Alvin Ellis, 
Frank Trabue, Hugh Sutherland, Charley Williams, Jim 
Hill, Ralph Barnes, Walter Timon, and others. Of the 
victorious Bluffs, Frank Larkin, Edwin and Walter Dove, 
E. J. Shaw, B. Legge, F. Wissinger, and others. The old 
boys are scattered now. Some have crossed the Divide, and 
the few left in the old town are sedate gentlemen. There 
are silver threads among their locks, and they play their 
games over again from the grandstand, while watching a 
hired team cavort over the field. 

And now, about 1891, we were to have an awakening, 
and old fashions and times go out together. One bright day 
Colonel Ropes reached town and started an up-to-date boom. 
His ideas were all right, but he came on about twenty years 
too soon, afld did not fully understand his subject. He 
bought land and laid off a city in the southern suburbs, built 
a dredge to cut a canal across Mustang Island to deep water. 
This dredge started in all right, cut a channel about fifteen 
feet wide and ten feet deep for about a hundred yards into 
soft sand, of which the island is composed, broke down, and 
the sand drifted into the channel behind, shutting her in. 
Her bones lie there yet. He also built the magnificent Alta 
Vista Hotel, but was not able to finish it. He laid oft" a 
city around the hotel, graded the streets, built a beautiful 
home for himself, which he never occupied, and built other 
homes for sale, graded miles of streets, and a road from the 
city to his hotel, and started and graded miles of a new pro- 
posed railroad to Brownsville. 

Any one of his schemes would have paid if undertaken 
singly, but he spent oceans of money and did not finish" 
any one thing. The old settlers watched the progress of 
events, and marveled. Some few went in on the boom and 
got stung. A money panic came on, and everything stopped. 
Laborers and contractors failed to get their wages, and 



The Story of Corpus Christ: 55 

people who had rushed in began to move on to the next 
boom town. It was sad to drive out to the hotel and see the 
beautiful building vacant except a caretaker. The new resi- 
dences were never occupied. Later they were gradually de- 
serted as they were too far from town for homes for people 
living in the city. 

Tiie Methodists of this section built a large tabernacle 
a mile south of the hotel, a college and other buildings. They 
were later removed, and later the same church came into the 
possession of a far better locality for their encampment 
grounds. Colonel Ropes went back from whence he came, 
and our bubble was burst. Our town had been invaded by 
speculators, horse racers, and a host of drifting population 
ready for a land boom in Texas, or a land rush in Indian 
Territory. They came in companies and platoons. 

The place was so overcrowded that people li\ed in 
garrets, sheds, tents, any shelter. They traded in every- 
thing and anything, from a terrier to a ranch, provided it 
could be bought on time. This class was the first to go, 
they brought nothing with them and they carried nothing 
away. But many good people also came and were carried 
away by the excitement. Highly colored and overdrawn 
literature was sent out and prospective buyers came. This 
class invested in real estate, bought anything offered. 

Two old gentlemen fought with canes for the privilege 
of paying nine hundred dollars for a lot near the Alta Vista 
Hotel. A big lot sale was held in the unfinished hotel, and 
lots were sold rapidly. Two years later lots in the same 
locality were offered for as low as ten dollars per lot, with 
no takers, and the greater part of this property was aban- 
doned to original owners, or sold for taxes. 

And now the better part of the story comes. The 
Brownsville Railroad is built, the town has grown south- 
ward in the last few years, and the schemes planned by 
Colonel Ropes have become realities, the lots have returned 
to their boom values and more, and fortunate the men who 
bought real estate and kept it. It was a long wait between 
the collapse of the boom and the healthy reaction which 
came gradually and surely, but the investment paid big in 
the long run. 



56 The Story of Corpus Christi 

Many bought options on land, and this also paid, but 
many of the investors were poor people and expected, as per 
circular, to make enough on the first crop to pay for the 
land and start a bank account. They lost and many of them 
deserted their holdings. To add to the distress, the Bank 
of Doddridge & Davis closed its doors. The news came like 
a thunderclap and the old town awoke with a bound. All 
sorts of stories were abroad, and as usual in such cases, the 
ones losing least howled loudest and longest. This event 
drove the last nail in the coffin of the boom, and things 
looked blue. The depositors were eventually paid sixty cents 
on the dollar. All sympathized with Mr. Doddridge, a good, 
honest man, self made, and whose greatest sin was his trust 
in his fellow-man. He never recovered from the shock 
of the destruction of his life work, dying a few years after 
the bank failure. The depositors took their per cent., and — 
"Esta Bueno," let it go at that. But the blow fell heavily 
on the new people who made part payment on homes. Many 
of them were old people, and they not being able to meet 
payments were forced to go. As if our troubles were not 
sufficient for the day thereof, we had a terrible drought that 
year. We were at a halt for a long time, had overbuilt, and 
houses in many cases were let to caretakers, rent free. The 
sound of the saw and hammer were strange for several 
years. 

Our new hotel, the Miramar, built by a local stock com- 
pany, on the beach where the Spohn Hospital now stands, 
burned to the ground, the guests barely escaping with their 
lives. Our cup of sorrow was running over, and for awhile 
we lost heart. But things began to pick up gradually. 

The women, as ever, in time of trouble, were to the 
front. The Monday Club was organized. Among their first 
work was the founding of a library for the High School, re- 
claiming and beautifying Artesian Square, a little park in 
the heart of the city. Under the rule of woman it was 
changed from an unsightly weed-covered spot to a thing of 
beauty. 

In this park is our famous mineral well. Some cures 
made by this water are but little short of miraculous. I would 
be afraid to tell them, as I scarce credit it if I had not 



The Story of Corpus Christi 57 

known the history of the cases, knew the patients before 
and after taking, so to speak. The water has never been 
exploited. It is free, and only those who test know its 
virtues. 

Then the Women's Cemetery Association was formed. 
They opened new cemeteries and cared for the old one. 
Later, under the leadership of Mrs. G. R. Scott, a committee 
of ladies met at the market hall and voted to form a stock- 
company and build a public meeting place. The latter was 
discussed from all points, one of the women declaring that 
there was not enough ready money in Corpus Christi to erect 
the hall. Airs. Scott was elected president, a committee of 
four directors appointed, being Mrs. Jessie Grififin, Mrs. 
Joshua Smith, Mrs. E. A. Born and Mrs. Mary Suther- 
land. Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Born later resigned, and Mrs. 
John Jordt and Mrs. P. Dunn were appointed in their places. 
Mrs. S. A\'. Rankin was secretary and Miss Mildred Seaton 
was treasurer, and the Ladies' Pavilion (now Olympic) was 
the result. The ladies hold the real honor of being the first 
stock company ever formed here who paid their stock- 
holders in full, with legal interest for every day they used 
it. This building was a boon to the town, as we had out- 
grown the old City Hall. While the women were in charge 
there were several notable conventions held there : Texas 
Bankers. Texas Medical Association, Secretary of War 
Dickinson spoke there at the time President Taft visited the 
city, political meetings of both parties, Inland Waterway 
Convention at which the Governor of Texas spoke, Texas 
Press Association, and others. 

But the most important of all the meetings, also in its 
bearing and future prosperity of the city, was the reception 
given the Committee of Texas Epworth League, who 
were seeking a place for their annual encampment. \\'e 
met the ladies and gentlemen of that committee, talked 
matters over, showed them our bayside, on a beautiful shell 
beach, off which there is to be found the finest bathing 
grounds anywhere. Each August for eleven years the 
City of Tents stood near General Taylor's old camp ground. 

Another army was here, bent on a far different and 
greater conquest than the American Army of occupati(<n 



58 The Story of Corpus Christi 

ever dreamed of. Under their banner of white and gold 
they sought the conquest of the earth. To this annual meet- 
ing came the best and brightest soldiers of the Cross, emi- 
nent divines and scholars, missionaries. Under the leader- 
ship of Rev. Frank Onderdonk came yearly the missionaries 
from Mexico, making a fine showing of the work done 
there. China, Japan, Korea, Brazil were all represented, 
and where more than half a century ago armed men 
swarmed and the sentinel kept his post, were spread long 
rows of white tents. The sound of women's songs and 
children's laughter displaced the bluff challenge. Hundreds 
of electric lights were mirrored in the moonlit waves, and the 
sound of prayer and praise was heard on the old camp 
ground. During the years there has always been the most 
perfect good feeling, a camp guard is employed, but his 
office is a sinecure ; the rough element of society are as 
scarce in its precincts as are serpents in the land of good 
St. Patrick, and though many live in tents and cottages, and 
as a rule well-to-do people, jewelry and other valuables care- 
lessly left about are perfectly safe. No untoward event has 
ever happened on the grounds. True, an occasional young- 
ster is reported missing, but invariably the sea gives up its 
very wet and happy boy or girl. The silver-haired grandpa 
and small boy played together in the clear waters, with odds 
in grandpa's favor. He can go into deeper water. Whole 
schools of girls romp, boys shoot the chutes, mamas gossip 
in circles, while the whole water line is covered with small 
tykes who may safely cavort on the warm sands. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 59 



CHAPTER XIII. 

When Fitzsimmons Trained. 

In the summer of 1895 Robert Fitzsimmons and his 
family and followers came to our city. Bob was training 
for his great fight with Corbett. He rented a brick house in 
the northern suburbs, near the bay, and every day we would 
see the long, lanky chap running or walking our streets, occa- 
sionally trying to ride a bicycle, but at this he was no adept. 
His pet lion cub roamed the premises unrestrained, but when 
the news got out that he had disappeared from home, excite- 
ment ran high, and for three days women kept their children 
in and doors barred. Men riding in or out of town carried 
a gun, while a posse organized and enjoyed the novelty of a 
lion hunt in West Texas. On the fourth day the cub 
crawled out from under the house where he had been in 
hiding, and the scare was over. Fitzsimmons spent about a 
month here, when the news came that Texas absolutely re- 
fused to be disgraced by a prize fight within her borders, 
Governor Culberson having called a special session of the 
Legislature for the purpose of framing a law to fit the case. 
Fitzsimmons and his wife, his mother-in-law and brother-in- 
law, his followers and his cub departed. I must admit that 
we Avere glad he won from Corbett for he had trained in 
Corpus Christi. 

Slowly at first, but gaining momentum as the years 
slipped past, our town forged ahead. The Brownsville Road 
opened up a rich country south of us and gradually pros- 
perity came to stay. Houses became scarce. The summer 
and winter visitors became more numerous tvtvy year. We 
could scarcely find shelter for all. One from the North, F. 
E. Ring, originated the plan of laiilding small, cheap cot- 
tages. Ring Villa sprang up almeist in a day. On four 
leased lots he built twelve cottages. The idea caught the 
public fancy and soon there were whole colonies of them, 
and we could take care of all who came. Previous to this 



60 The Story of Corpus Christi 

time people had actually arrived and left on the next train, 
being unable to find accommodations. 

During the Spanish-American \\^ar we had one com- 
pany of Texas troops stationed here. They camped on the 
North Beach, and served their whole enlistment with us. 
This being the only fragment of the war that came our way, 
we made the most of it, and the boys held one long picnic. 
Only one bit of bloodshed in the command. One soldier 
dangerously wounded a comrade with a bayonet thrust. The 
wounded man was sent to the hospital tent, and the bellig- 
erent jailed. The officer in command sent to town for a 
conveyance in which he and the prisoner mounted, officer 
grasping his pistol, while two men walked on each side with 
guns. Each and everyone who met them coming in joined 
in the procession, so that they had a good crowd. Drays, 
buggies, bicycles, horseback and footmen in attendance. 
When they reached the County Jail the prisoner was turned 
over to the civil authorities, and a few days later, when they 
demanded him to carry him to military prison, the Civil 
Court refused to surrender him. The sequel was, the man 
got well, the war ended and the prisoner went free. 

We had a great naval show on Nueces Bay right after 
the Spanish-American War, portraying the destruction of 
Cervera's Fleet. The first night the show was a failure. The 
Mexicans who were to work the boats in the shoal water, 
seeing the soldiers arrive with guns to man the fleet, got 
suspicious. The story got out that they were to be killed in 
the water. The news spread, and while trains from town 
were carrying out thousands to view the spectacle, the 
motive power of the Santa Maria and other vessels of the 
hostile fleet were legging it back to safety. Next night crews 
of white men were secured and the sham battle was grand, 
simply magnificent ! 

The hostile ships lay in Corpus Christi Bay while the 
Americans awaited them in Nueces Bay. The Spaniards 
came singly as in the real battle at Santiago, were attacked 
and set on fire, the soldiers representing the marines, and 
the red lights representing fire. Powerful rockets from stove- 
pipe cannon played havoc with the running Spaniard, a 
magnificent show of fireworks throughout. The town paid 



The Story of Corpus Christi 61 

a considerable sum to secure the spectacle and the crowds 
were so great that many had to keep to the trains and re- 
turn, being unable to get accommodations. One car cleaner 
at the depot got into trouble when the passengers of the 
train which got in last began to come back and demand ad- 
mission to the cars. He refused to let them in, locked the 
doors and ran to 'phone the Superintendent. W hen he got 
back they had climbed in at the windows, and again he ran 
to 'phone for instructions. This time he got back to find 
the passengers had retired for the night, on chairs, floor and 
every available spot. For several days sleeping quarters 
were at a premium. The town was crowded by enthusiastic 
Americans, eager to see the portrayal of our latest naval 
battle. 

But this war was soon over, and our little command of 
Texans went home, and the loafer quit meeting the man 
from the Island who had heard heavy firing seaward. This 
story got quite stale during hostilities. Poor old Spain had 
not enough navy to guard her own shores, and none to hunt 
honors on the Gulf. 

The electric light reached here about icSgo or 1892, and 
what a boon they were ! The kerosene lamp was good in 
winter but very poor in summer, owing to the almost out- 
door life we led, doors and windows wide open to catch the 
breeze. Also the first auto arrived and claimed its share 
of notice. I think the first car was the property of John G. 
Kennedy, a wealthy ranchman. The second car to arrive 
was brought on by one of our most popular physicians, the 
late Dr. A. G. Heaney. This car belonged here, and many 
of our people tasted the joy of automobiling for the first 
time in the car of the kindly doctor, particularly the school 
children, who were made happy for days by a lift of a few 
blocks in the wonderful auto. Today Corpus Christi is said 
to have more cars than any town twice its size in the State. 



62 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Visit of President Taft. 

Our next very great event was the visit, in October of 
1909, of William Howard Taft, President of the United 
States. For months preparations to receive him were in 
order. The revenue cutter "\^'indom" came over from Gal- 
veston to hoist the President's flag and bring him across 
the bay from La Quinta, his brother's ranch, twelve miles 
away, on north shore, to our wharf. Meetings were held 
and committees appointed. In the excitement our Mayor, 
Dan Reid, was nearly forgotten. Finally committees w^ere 
fixed. The cjuestion of dress for the reception committee 
was broached. Some man, or it might have been a woman, 
suggested a silk hat and tan shoes as proper. And this in 
Texas ! But our never failing common sense prevailed, and 
a go-as-you-please party of representative men met Presi- 
dent Taft on Central Wharf, where the party had to thread 
their way between cotton bales. It was a fair illustration 
of how badly we needed deep water. IMayor Reid and two 
City Commissioners rode with Mr. Taft in an automobile, 
followed by a long line of cars, and preceded by a platoon 
of mounted police. 

Every eye w^as glued on the first auto, and there that 
good natured face looked out at us, from under a new silk 
hat — no, an old Panama which might have done duty on the 
farm as an egg basket. Later the President told us this 
story of the ancient headgear. He said that Governor Camp- 
bell met him on his entrance into the State, at El Paso, and 
there the two men made a compact. W'hile in Texas Mr. 
Taft was to wear the battered Panama of the Governor, and 
the Governor was to wear the President's silk hat. They 
stuck to the bargain, but I imagine Mr. Governor was glad 
when Mr. President flitted over the border of Texas. 

A pergola was erected at the foot of the blufif on Mes- 
quite Street. Seats placed on terraces on the face of the 
bluff accommodated hundreds, while on the crest of the 



The Story of Corpus Christi 63 

hill were ranked the children of the public schools. A mili- 
tary band from Fort Sam Houston was with them, and as 
the President arrived they accompanied the children in the 
National anthem, "America." The leader of the band was 
cross, the children warm and excited. Two or three little 
girls fainted and were borne from the held, and it was a 
very ragged musical welcome accorded Mr. Taft. As he 
ascended the steps to the platform he noticed two parties 
of aged men on front seats. Learning that they were vet- 
erans of the Blue and the Grey, he had them invited to seats 
on the stand in the shade. Mayor Reid, in a few well chosen 
words, introduced Mr. Taft to the audience, and here for 
the first time many of our people saw the President of our 
country. He won his hearers from the start. Looked just 
as we expected this great American to look, and talked as 
one of our own, though he gently hinted that he was not 
President by Southern votes, but we loved him for what he 
was, and a more loyal audience than that Texas crowd never 
listened to a speaker than this one, who stood under the 
burning sun on this ever-to-be-remembered day. 

A company of militia from Brownsville aided the peace 
officers in guarding the grounds, around which a fence had 
been placed, and everyone entering had to get in at the well- 
guarded gate. The writer noticed, as we suppose did every- 
one else, a kind of nervous dread which seemed to pervade 
the vast crowd, a fear of some untoward happening, a fear 
for comfort and safety of our illustrious visitor. A news- 
paper man standing outside of the low fence snapped a 
camera. The snap sounded like a salvo of gatlins to those 
nearbv. and inside a minute a couple of bayonets were at 
his breast. He smilingly held up his camera and named his 
paper, and we breathed free again. After the President's 
talk he entered a waiting auto and visited the new Country 
Club House, and golf grounds, which he formally opened. 

Returning he was entertained at the home of Mrs. 
Henrietta ^L King. At 3 o'clock he again boarded the 
"W'indom" and sailed back across the bay to the home of 
his brother, and the greatest day in the history of Corpus 
Christi was over. We had met the President of our great 
Nation, and were not disappointed in our American, that is 



64 The Story of Corpus Christi 

as to our white population. The colored citizens felt a little 
disappointed as they were not particularly or specially 
noticed, and they had given him their votes nearly to a man, 
while our numerous Aztec or Spanish- American citizens 
openly voiced their contempt for the whole show in un- 
measured terms and good Mexican language. Anyone who 
has met a Mexican officer, or a military band in full regi- 
mentals, will understand why. They expected purple and 
gold, tinsel and plumes, all the trappings so dear to the de- 
scendants of the Indian and Conquistador. 

The writer remembers one particular military band 
visiting a neighboring city, time July 21, thermometer crowd- 
ing the nineties. The bandmen wore heavy wool uniforms, 
w4th broad band of gold lace down each leg of pantaloons, 
gold epaulets on each shoulder, great heavy leather hats 
with heavy red braid and plumes, and they were only band- 
men. How ceaselessly they played, how earnestly they 
played the sad peculiar music of their own land, so honestly 
and earnestly that it became monotonous to the American 
crowd who wanted to hear the decisions of the umpire, and 
when a ball struck the leader on the hat and nearly upset 
him, he bent to the blow but never missed a note. 

But our great day, October 22, 1909, was over. A\'e 
were pleased and proud of the honor. While Mr. Taft, 
God bless him, carried a broad smile and the blessing of the 
people away with him, our city, so crowded and gay. was 
soon to know a great sorrow. The gay flags to hang at half 
mast and the "trappings of mourning to replace the welcom- 
ing decorations. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 65 



CHAPTER XV. 

Administration of Dan Reid. 

Only a few days after Mr. Taft's visit our Mayor, Dan 
Reid, was stricken with a fatal illness, and on December 
15 the W'hole city sadly followed to its last resting place in 
the old cemetery, the body of one of our most able sons. 
Mr. Reid, Dan as his friends called him, Avas ever a public- 
spirited citizen. In 1892 Corpus Christi installed a water- 
works system. Mr. Reid purchased largely of the bonds, 
and was for years president of the waterworks company, 
the city purchasing the bonds just previous to his death. It 
is a paying business now, but in its infancy it required a 
world of coddling and good money to keep it going, and 
literally Mr. Reid nursed it to maturity, and turned the stock 
over to the city at 65 cents on the dollar. He, wuth a few 
other public-spirited citizens, kept the company alive, and 
the water flowing, through months of the greatest business 
depressions and through years, when if the ledger balanced, 
it did no more, turning it over the city, which would not 
risk the price of installing it, in splendid condition. 

Dan Reid was three times defeated for Mayor of the 
city. In his fourth canvass he was elected. Not being satis- 
fied with the Aldermanic form of government, he volun- 
tarily resigned the office for which he had stood so often, 
and with other prominent citizens applied for a charter 
under commission form of government. This was granted. 
a new election held, and he was again elected, serving only 
a part of his term when the Grim Reaper came. But in this 
short time, order came out of chaos. The city was placed 
on a cash basis. City scrip, which had been as low as 25 
cents on the dollar, was worth its face value. Better sani- 
tary laws were made and enforced, employees paid promptly 
and required to earn their salary, while the Mayor's salary 
of one hundred dollars per month remained in the bank, 
to be expended as the citizens wished, for the benefit of the 



66 The Story of Corpus Christi 

city, either in the extension of the water mains or street 
improvement. 

An election was held under the auspices of the Daily 
Caller, in which every citizen over eighteen years of age, 
including women, were allowed to vote. Good roads car- 
ried, but before the work could be mapped out the generous 
donor was gone, and even his most bitter political enemy, 
he had no other, felt that our town had suffered an almost 
irreparable loss. 

Mr. Reid came to Corpus Christi with the family of his 
widowed mother in 1854. He was but two years of age at 
the time, and remembered nothing of the trip from far-off 
Glasgow, Scotland. He received a fair education in our day 
schools, learned the builders' trade under the guidance of 
the late E. D. Sidbury, which he quit and went into the sheep 
business for a few years. Returning to Corpus Christi he 
formed a partnership with H. R. Sutherland, and this firm 
of Reid & Sutherland, Architects and Builders, was well 
known for nearly twenty years, from the coast to the border. 

And now, in the days of 1915, our old town is forging 
upward. On the evening air is borne the noise of a city, 
where a few years since the calm of a Sabbath stillness was 
over all, the lowing of kine or the shrill whistle of the small 
boy the only sound to break the silence, where now late into 
the night, encroaching on the new day, the sound of the 
clang of the car, puff of an auto, or chug of a motor boat 
rend the air, while the laugh and shout of the merry bathing 
crowds are abroad in the night, for the bathing is good the 
year 'round, only taking a recess when a Norther arrives. 
The calm of the old days of the Indian and the Spanish 
cavalier has departed forever. 

The first ball we have notice of was given by officers 
under General Taylor. Undoubtedly some of the officers' 
wives must have come out, and still we expect ladies were 
scarce. We remember seeing an article some years ago in 
one of our papers on old times, and it described an invi- 
tation sent to Mrs. Belden, then a young matron, to attend 
this ball. W^e suppose other ladies must have arrived, as 
Mrs. and Miss Moore and Mrs. Belden are mentioned as the 
only ladies here at the time of landing. The next on list is 



The Story of Corpus Christi 67 

the ball by enlisted men, at which our Irish Sergeant played 
beau to Lucindy. Another invitation of which we saw a copy 
was dated in the 50's. After mentioning time and place 
the committee assured the ladies that perfect order would 
be kept as an officer would be present to suppress any undue 
hilarity. 

Later many dances were given, and though most every- 
one carried pistols, there is no record or tradition of any 
unpleasantness. The inborn respect for women, of which 
all Americans have a large share, made this not only possible 
but sure. Many little dancing parties were given at private 
residences by the young people both in town and country, at 
which the old quadrille or cotillion and Virginia reel lasted 
from dark till day. The slow two-step or languorous waltz 
of the present was unknown, and dear to the memories of 
the old-timers was .the sound of the violin and the whoop 
of the prompter. But times change. During the stay of the 
battalion here during the Spanish A\'ar, some of the boys 
arranged a little private dance, at which quadrilles were 
danced. vSuddenly on the night air arose sounds of apparent 
strife. For blocks around, from dwellings poured men and 
women. The men, true to Corpus Christi spirit, ready to 
carry first aid, followed the sound to find that the noise 
emanated from a vociferous prompter who was onto his 
job. Revival of the old dances was a novelty at this date. 

The most noted balls, however, were those given yearly 
to and by the Fire Department. For thirty-seven years this 
was the local social event of the season. In old days there 
was a parade by day and a ball at night. At first we had 
only a hook and ladder truck and a fire engine. These the 
ladies decorated with evergreen and oleanders for the pa- 
rade. Later we got hose carts for the different wards, and 
then came the tug-of-war, each ward tr)ang to win the prize, 
and the decorations could not have been surpassed in any 
city. Fach and every flower of decorations was hand made, 
and every petal of the thousands of flowers was carefully 
examined before using in the w'ork. Every woman in the 
ward was a willing helper, and days and long evenings were 
given over to the work, and the finished work was grand. 
At nicrht old Alarket Hall was buried, as to walls, under a 



68 The Story of Corpus Christi 

cloud of green flowers, and to this ball came the firemen and 
their guests, little and big, rich and poor. Old and young 
met once a year at the Firemen's Ball. And what hosts 
those old boys were, every man of them a committee of one, 
to see that everybody enjoyed the occasion, that there were 
no wall flowers, that the ladies had the first and best seats 
at the table, and what a table. 

The ladies of the different wards, under a chairman, 
arranged this, soliciting the supper and donating it This 
supper became famous both as to quantity and quality, be- 
cause cooked at home and sent in. Turkey or ham from one, 
cake from another, and down the list. Quantity as every- 
body wanted to give. A whole pig with a ruffled collar, 
and an apple in its mouth. A log cabin cake, enough for 
twenty hungry boys. Two beautiful white deer, in butter, 
feeding on a green parsley lawn. A gift from the Convent, 
an old English church, of cake, with steeple. But the great- 
est artistic display was in the salads. Whole bouquets of 
eatables, such spreads as have gone out of date forever. 
During the past few years the growth of Corpus Christi 
has been so great that the Volunteer Department, in a large 
measure, has been supplanted by a paid department, splen- 
didly equipped. And with the passing of the volunteers 
passed the social features. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 69 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Some Early Entertainments. 

Then one day in the 8o's the lightning rod man arrived 
with his great team of gray horses and long wagon loaded 
with rods. He proceeded to give open air concerts, fine 
music and singing by a really good quartette of more than 
ordinary ability, and between acts, a good talker, told us of 
our daily danger from the clouds. W'e turned out nightly to 
enjoy the show, and the thrills we felt when our danger was 
pointed out. Nobody had ever been killed by lightning in 
our town, and we arranged that no one should. We got 
rods, some of the most timorous even putting five or six 
rods on a small roof. This company made several visits to 
us and we enjoyed every one of them. 

Next came the medicine shows. They also gave nightly 
concerts, which might have been enjoyed had they also not 
brought news of so many new ailments. The Wizard Oil 
Company was the first to arrive, and their oil is still a 
favorite cure-all with many of us. The Diamond King also 
held the public for a time, and a long list of companies and 
cures followed, even to the present day, but the charlatan 
of this day has no such audiences as his predecessors. The 
earliest companies were a break in the monotony of the 
times. Now amusement is more plentiful and we are more 
fastidious in our tastes, though we are an amusement loving 
people and our city classed as a good show town. 

A most interesting public event of this kind to which 
we went to a man, also woman, was our first Street Carnival, 
the best of its kind. The tents were placed in the streets, 
which was a novelty in itself. Here we saw the Flying 
Woman and the first moving pictures, which were new at 
the time. And the shooting galleries, where great fat tur- 
keys might be and often were won, our first hamburgers, 
hot waffles, and snowy popcorn came at this time. We think 
this was about 1900. A\'e have had many Carnivals since, 
l)Ut never one equal to this pioneer. 



70 The Story of Corpus Christi 

Horse races were always in order, one of which is 
remembered by old-timers, in which two young ladies rode 
for a prize, a fine side saddle. This race was arranged by 
Colonel Kinney and attracted much attention. In the autumn 
of 1898 a large colony of horsemen brought their string of 
horses to winter here. They had sheds and a track in the 
Rincon, and we had races galore, while our streets were one 
continual horse show. The biggest event of this meet was 
a ten-mile race between a lady from Kansas and a lady of the 
Lone Star State. They changed mounts at the end of each 
mile. Of course Texas won. They remained a few months, 
then the beautiful horses were loaded on trains and shipped 
out, and with them went their gentlemen owners with their 
families, their drivers, jockeys, cleaners and all the riff-raff 
which follow and disgrace this noble sport. 

Early in the 80's a couple of herdic coaches were put 
into commission on the streets, a stable built, and the first 
pavilion ever erected in Corpus Christi was opened on the 
beach near the bayou. A skating rink was opened and semi- 
weekly dances were held there. The coaches, or herdies, as 
we called them, ran daily north and south on Chaparral 
Street, and on dance or skating nights did a big business. 
The company owning them, of wdiich our popular townsman, 
Major J. H. C. White, was president and manager, spent 
considerable money in the venture, but after a few months 
of honest effort abandoned the scheme of establishing cheap 
transportation. Many years were to pass, much money to be 
spent, a street railroad to be built and abandoned, the old 
century to die and the new to be a lusty youngster, aged 
ten, before a five-cent fare was pay on our streets. 
But the young people of that day cherish many happy recol- 
lections of those times. 

The first city hack was brought on a few years after the 
War by the veteran stable owner, John Fogg, and immedi- 
ately found favor. An election was approaching and one 
of the candi.dates scored a point by engaging the only hack 
in sight to carry his friends to the polls. Things were going 
fine with him, all his way, until he persuaded a gruff old 
gentleman to ride to the voting place. Arriving, the old 
fellow refused to quit without a longer ride. This was re- 



The Story of Corpus Christi 71 



peated over and over. Becoming angry, the candidate at- 
tempted force, only to be met by a rather ugly gun. The 
news got out and our angry politician was the butt of the 
crowd. Up one street and down another sailed the hack with 
its solemn passenger with the gun. The driver solved the 
problem by driving into the stable and unhitching the horses. 
Then, and only then, did our man condescend to alight, walk 
to the box and vote for the other fellow. Other vehicles 
followed, and even as a small town we supported two well 
equipped livery stables, and the handy hack held its own 
until the auto came to divide the honors. Previous to the 
advent of the cab, the livery stables kept a line of road 
wagons, vehicles suitable for travel across the country, as 
there was no other method of travel until the stage lines were 
established. 

In 1852 Corpus Christi was incorporated, and on the 
first Tuesday in April of that year our good people met at 
the polls and elected B. F. Neal Mayor. Of this gentleman 
the writer is glad to be able to give a short sketch, furnished 
her by an intimate friend of the family, and one time inmate 
of Judge Neal's home. B. F. Neal was a Virginian by birth 
and educated to the law. We do not recall the year he came 
to Southwest Texas. That he was learned in his profession 
is proven by the fact of his many services ; that he was fitted 
for almost any position in life was also proven. We find him 
serving as Mayor, District Judge, editor of one of the earli- 
est newspapers. The Nueces Valley. As a soldier he com- 
manded a company during the war between the States. Tak- 
ing a great interest in the early schools, he was one of the 
most prominent and useful citizens of the Corpus Christi of 
his day. Judge Neal was twice married, his second wife 
being a Miss Zula Haynes of Philadel[)hia. Mrs. Neal was 
a Quakeress by birth, and a noble helpmate to her public- 
spiritea, patriotic husband, a veritable leader in all works of 
mercy, accepting the rough life of the frontier with a meek- 
ness inherited from a long line of God-fearing ancestors. She 
aided the poor, nursed the sick, and by her works was she 
known. Should we ever have a Hall of Fame, the name of 
our first Mayor and Zula Haynes, his wife, should occupy 
a prominent niche therein. 



72 The Story of Corpus Christi 

In 1853 we find as Mayor of Corpus Christi one E. H. 
Winfield. Of this gentleman I can tell nothing more than 
his name. That his term must have been short we are sure, 
as in the same year we see that E. R. Hopson is also on the 
list as Mayor. Of this gentleman, as of his predecessor, we 
know nothing except the name. 

In 1854 we greet H. W. Berry as his Honor, and this 
leads us to believe that the office was held for one year at 
that time. A sketch of Captain Berry is given elsewhere. 
He was at this time a comparatively young man, an ex- 
officer of the volunteers who had served under General 
Taylor. He returned to Corpus Christi at the close of the 
Mexican A\'ar, to lead a long and useful life with us. 

1855. Our first Municipal Father, Judge Neal, is in 
office with us again. 

1856. Henry A. Maltby, afterwards and for years a 
prominent citizen of Brownsville, is Mayor. 

1857. H. W. Berry again, but apparently for a short 
time only, as we find from same records (copy furnished 
writer by City Secretary O. O. Wright, January i, 1911). 
that for 1857, 1858 and 1859 Mr. Richard Holbein, for many, 
years a prominent ranchero, held this office. 

1860-62. Captain Berr3\ during this turbulent time, 
looked after the interest of the little war-ridden town as 
Mayor. 

1863-65. Dr. George Robertson, a native of Scotland, 
held the reins of office, and at this time the position was 
one of peril, as the enemy were often in evidence. On one 
occasion a scouting party from the fleet espied three men 
on Chaparral Street and chased them into the home of 
Mrs. Swift, in the rear of the Robertson home (corner of 
Schatzel and Water Streets). Two of the men went under 
beds and were soon captured, but Mrs. Swift, with almost 
superhuman strength, pulled out a wardrobe and the Mayor 
slid behind it. She pushed it back into the corner, and he 
remained through the hunt, safely hidden, the woman and 
the captured men finally convincing the Yanks that they 
had been seeing treble, as only two m.en were there. One 
of the captured men was John Riggs. I do not remember 
the name of the other. These bovs drew starvation rations in 



The Story of Corpus Christi 73 

a New Orleans prison until the close of the War, but the doc- 
tor escaped. Dr. Robertson died of yellow fever in '67. The 
house of good Mrs. Swift has made place for the elegant 
home of E. T. Merriman, while the Robertson home, which 
has for years been the home of his son and widowed daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Jessie Clark, known to all the old residents for its 
kindly Scotch hospitality, was removed, and upon its site 
was erected Lichtenstein's Department Store, the first de- 
partment store for Corpus Christi. 

1866-67. ^^ • ^^- Staples, who opened the first lumber 
yard in Corpus Christi. Mr. Staples afterward opened a 
large ranch, and for years he and his good wife were promi- 
nent in the social life of this section. Their ranch was ever 
a welcoming haven, and both of them happy when surround- 
ed by happy children. 

1868-69. Colonel Nelson Plato. Here we have an 
illustration of how soon we forget our political dififerences. 
Colonel Plato came to Corpus Christi in the Union Army, 
we believe in command of a colored regiment, and in the 
next year or so we find him filling our highest local office. 
We might suppose that the Colonel was elected by the Car- 
petbaggers, were it not that he comes again later, after our 
rights had been restored. The writer remembers him as a 
very pleasant gentleman. 

1870-72. J. B. Mitchell, an early settler. Pioneer hard- 
ware merchant, at one time very wealthy. The name "J. B. 
Mitchell Co." stood for integrity in business throughout 
South Texas. 

1873-74. P. Doddridge, pioneer banker. Notice else- 
where. 

1875. Colonel Plato takes up the reins again and metes 
out justice to the breaker of the law. 

1876. A\'illiam Headen, one of the best loved men who 
ever made a home with us, son of wealthy parents. He was 
truly a sincere follower of the lowly Nazarene, and the large 
and prosperous Methodist community of our town owes 
much to his earnest loyalty to the early poor and struggling 
church. Pie was such a man as to be remhered kindly 
forever. 

1877. T. C. Russell, eminent jurist, for many years 



74 The Story of Corpus Christi 

Judge of this District, finally resigning the office and refus- 
ing further honors at the hands of his admiring constituents. 
An ex-Confederate officer, a kindly man whose justice was 
ever tempered with mercy in quantity. 

1877-79. Hon. J. M. Moore. Notice of this grand man, 
father-in-law of William Headen, elsewhere. 

1880-83. John Baptist Murphy, lawyer. Also ex- 
Confederate officer. Of this Mayor the writer can "hardly 
be trusted to give an unbiased notice, and this without fear 
or favor, as so far as known there is neither kith nor kin 
of the Judge in Texas, nor was he a personal friend, but his 
methods were so honest and unique that he is quoted to this 
day. He drained our streets by cutting ditches to the bay. 
The remains of the ditches are to be seen now, some of them 
doing good service today. He worked city prisoners on the 
streets, and if the prisoner worked he was given three good 
meals a day ; if not he was idle on the traditional bread 
and water. One man was arrested for going barefooted. 
According to the charge of his Honor, a man who would 
go barefooted in public was a vagrant. This man worked 
out a good stiff fine, and either wore shoes or left town. 
During the time of his service as Mayor a company of 
Regulars was camped here for sometime, a light battery 
which came for practice with the new gatling gun. One 
day an ex-Confederate was met by one of our defenders 
who had been drinking. The soldier pulled the gentleman's 
pipe from his mouth, and a rough and tumble ensued. All 
parties were arrested promptly. The pipe owner, a stranger, 
had heard that the Mayor was a Yankee and expected to 
pay a nice fine. Asked his story, he said : "I served with 
Lee ; don't like the uniform, and when the chap caught my 
pipe I hit him." "What," said the Mayor, "he attacked you 
in that manner; do these men in uniform think they can in- 
sult our citizens with impunity? You are discharged." 
"Bring on the prisoner," and it required the utmost per- 
suasion of the company officers, and strong assurances of 
military punishment to save the soldier from a taste of Texas 
justice. When Judge Murphy died, which he did during his 
second term, our scrip was worth one hundred cents on the 
dollar. Not one cent of debt, and a cash balance on hand of 



The Story of Corpus Christi 75 

$12,000. if I am not mistaken as to the exact sum. Anyway, 
balance or not, taxes were small and our streets clean. True, 
we were a small place and municipal expenses were small, 
but we worked no more prisoners, and within a few years 
scrip was cheap and taxes were not. 

1884-85. George F. Evans. Mr. Evans served the un- 
expired term of Judge Murphy to the perfect satisfaction of 
our people, but I do not think he again sought the office. I 
have no recollection of his name figuring as a candidate, and 
in those days having so little to occupy our minds, we took 
an immense interest in local politics. 

1886-87. Captain C. C. Heath, a local merchant, guided 
the destinies of those two years. During his term the San 
Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad was built into Corpus 
Christi, and we began to feel the first awakening, and to 
meet people on the street whom we did not know. 

1888-9T. Henry Keller drew two terms and made a 
good Mayor. During his time the great Ropes boom started 
and ended. Mr. Keller did much public work in which he 
was ably helped by his lovable wife. Mrs. Keller visited 
and welcomed the stranger, and in every way placed the 
good of the town above personal matters. 

1 892- 1 903. O. C. Lovenskiold, son of one of the oldest 
families, a born Corpus Christian, held the ofifice at will, and 
through a trying time. At the collapse of the boom, when 
our city went through a depressing series of misfortunes, he 
held the reins steadily and guided us safely through the 
breakers. Being a gentleman of rare education and of 
wealth, he was able to give both time and talent to the work 
in hand during this time, the darkest, from a business view, 
we ever knew. Property steadily decreased in value. More 
than half our business houses were closed, and money with 
which to keep the city affairs moving must have been hard 
to find. Public debt was inevitable. The wonder was that 
we had a shred of credit left, but we lived through, and re- 
gret our Mayor did not live to see all the promise of our 
f^rst boom more than fulfilled in the second. 

1904-07. Dr. H. H. Segrest, a Mississippian by birth, 
served through the above years as Mayor, and later as Com- 
missioner. Being an ardent advocate of the commission 



76 The Story of Corpus Christi 

form of government, he satisfactorily looked after the city's 
interest as Commissioner. 

1908-09. Dan Reid. It was Mr. Reid's fortune to 
begin his public life with a new and untried charter, but dur- 
ing the few months of his incumbency he proved the feasi- 
bility of the plan. A more extended notice elsewhere. Dur- 
ing his term of office the President of the United States 
visited Corpus Christi. 

1910-11. Clark Pease, twenty-second man to hold the 
office in the fifty-nine years since our incorporation. 

In concluding the list of Mayors of our city, the writer 
takes particular pleasure in comparing our first and last in- 
cumbents of this office. Mr. Roy Miller was chosen our 
standard bearer in 1913, re-elected by a large majority in 
191 5, and if our first Mayor might come back from the 
golden shore, his honest old heart would be gladdened to 
know that his mantle had fallen upon such worthy shoulders ; 
that today, as in the early days of our town, its Mayor is 
the friend of every citizen. The bright glare of the electric 
lights upon streets, lighted in his day only by the moon and 
stars, would not blind his eyes to the fact that the people 
of now are as able to distinguish an honest, upright man 
as in the long ago. There is but one blot upon the record 
of our Mayor; he was not born in Corpus Christi. This he 
has remedied as far as possible by his marriage to a native 
girl, and seeing that his children's first memories should be 
of our Celestial City. Like our first Mayor, Mr. Miller is 
never too busy, never too tired to listen to the voice of his 
people, to aid and advise with them, to rejoice with the 
merry, to sympathize with those who sorrow. With the 
many blessings enjoyed by our city on the coast, we feel 
disposed to place our whole-hearted, loyal Roy Miller as not 
the least of these blessings. 

In this list of men who have held the office of Mayor, 
you will see by a glance at the column that we have been 
particularly fortunate in our choice. Although almost on 
the border, and for a long time, an isolated community, 
there was never lacking, never a dearth of highly educated 
people in our midst. For this same reason I ascribe our love 
for schools. Whether they opened on the day (leneral Tay- 



The Story of Corpus Christi 77 

lor landed (when history really begins with us), I doubt, 
but that they did shortly after I am sure. The country jus- 
tice, as depicted on the stage, was never with us, but if our 
first Mayor should come back, he would need all the nerve 
he undoubtedly possessed to keep a calm demeanor. In his 
day he proceeded to olTice on a deserted street, and only 
when some festive cowboy or boy sailor had looked too long 
on the red wine, did he ha\e a case on docket. An occa- 
sional bad man of the card sharper variety sometimes 
reached here and livened things up, but his principal busi- 
ness was advisor-in-chief to the little community. And how 
fit for this he was, this early Mayor! His principal work 
after this was to agitate, write and talk deep water. Xo 
entertaining Presidents or near Presidents' committees or 
conventions was in his day's work. Just plain work, and he 
did it well. 



78 ' The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Corpus Christi Schools. 

Some time in the 50's Colonel Kinney, perhaps pining 
for recreation, sent to New Orleans and hired a circus. It 
came on a steamer, bag and baggage, men and horses, wo- 
men, children, canvas tent and all, and for one glorious 
week the few residents and everything for miles around had 
a perfect round of joyous excitement. The band played, 
the riders performed their stunts, the concert woman sang, 
black-faced comedians told funny stories to the end men, 
and everybody was happy. 

Then, as usual in old times, water became scarce. 
Teams were hired and a long procession of wagons made a 
daily trip to the Nueces River, fifteen miles away. For this 
water the wagoners received one dollar and fifty cents the 
barrel. They could afford to enjoy the show. But the 
steamer returned and the show departed, bemoaned by all. 
though every song, joke and stunt was memorized and 
served up for years afterward. In memoriam as it were ! 

In 1877 we again had a show. Again it came from 
New Orleans, but it was not so grand as Colonel Kinney's 
circus. This time we hired the costumes and represented 
the animals. A great elephant required the combined eft'orts 
of two large men. Then the dromedary, camel, lion and all 
the menagerie were there. The monkey family, represented 
by small boys, was out in full force. Rex and his court 
reached town on the Texas-Mexican train, at least they 
came from the then new depot, and the more than creditable 
procession, headed by a band, marched the length of our 
two streets. At night a grand ball was given at the Market 
Hall. The Queen of the Carnival was crowned and every- 
body being invited, attended and enjoyed the festival. This 
was the first and only Mardi Gras ever held in Corpus 
Christi. It was promoted by the Master Butchers and not 
repeated, we suppose, on account of the heavy expense. So- 
cially it was a great success. Of those Master Butchers we 



The Story of Corpus Christi 79 

remember the names of August Ricklefsen, Henry Busch 
and H. L. Dreyer. 

Such things look and sound trixial in this day, but all 
had a bearing on the future. The same spirit which prompt- 
ed the circus and carnival prompted a try at the newly dis- 
covered icemaking plant. We had one of the earliest, the 
only one for a long time south of San Antonio. Then we 
read of wonderful electric lights and the telephone and se- 
cured both. Though small we were every ambitious, and 
this has made a small city of our once little village beside the 
sea. We have a peculiar style of our own in keeping up 
with the times. Something good is proposed and a list 
started. Some sign, knowing escape is impossible. Then 
comes the tug. a second list goes out and more names se- 
cured. Then the names of property holders is canvassed 
and you must dig, for the good of the town, and sooner or 
later you will put up. After a time you see the wisdom of 
giving and the futility of trying to escape. Corpus Christi 
expects every man to do his duty, and generally he comes up 
to the expectation. We have built churches, schools, parks, 
widened streets, and keep excellent public schools open for 
a session of nine months, for both white and colored pupils, 
one hospital, and various other minor enterprises, founded 
by our people, either by taxation or volunteer contribution. 

The earliest school of which we can get authentic data 
was taught by one Mr. Whitely in a small house at the 
corner of Lawrence and Chaparral Streets, where now stands 
the St. James Hotel. Next, a school taught by Mrs. Dix. 
Another teacher of early days was Mrs. George Robertson, 
wife of our wartime Mayor. Those schools were in the late 
40's or early 50's. In 1856 Colonel Lovenskiold opened a 
more pretentious school than liad been known to our people 
in bygone years. Colonel Lovenskiold, then a young man, 
taught the higher classes, assisted by one Miss Garden, and 
Mr. Croft had charge of the smaller classes. 'Later Mr. 
Lovenskiold became a member of the Bar, and a Mr. Conrad 
was employed to aid Mr. Croft and Miss Garden in the 
school, though Mr. Lovenskiold still kept an interest in it as 
superintendent, and his memory is revered by the few of the 



80 The Story of Corpus Christ: 

old pupils who are yet with us. One of them tells of a very 
exciting incident. 

One cold morning two brothers, men in size, came to 
school armed with pistols, looking for trouble with the 
teacher for some fancied insult of the day previous. The 
Colonel came in, and seeing the situation at a glance, told 
the boys to put down their arms, which, after a moment's 
hesitation, they did. He then ordered them to sit down. 
He addressed them as if pleading a case before a jury. The 
girls wept, then the small boys, and lastly the would-be des- 
peradoes broke down and sobbed their promises to lead 
better school lives. This was the one and only trouble with 
pupils. He lived to a good age, becoming later a brilliant 
man and successful lawyer, giving his best days and talents 
to the upbuilding of his adopted State, and particularly to 
his beloved Corpus Christi. He was an ofificer in the Con- 
federate Army, at one time in command of this post. 

Next we hear of Father Ganard teaching a boys' school, 
and later aiding Mrs. Priour in keeping a little school open 
during the darkest days of the War. Mrs. Priour was also 
assisted by Lawyer Carroll and Judge Neal. It seems that 
of those teachers, Mrs. Priour was the only one who could 
be depended upon to open school daily, as in her memoirs 
she tells of a school examination she was holding, at which 
several of the parents of the children, and the three gentle- 
men named, Ganard, Carroll and Neal, were present. The 
street door, which was closed, was suddenly battered in and 
some of the ladies sitting against it overturned. In the con- 
fusion the gentlemen departed by the back door, and the 
officer in command of the guard, seeing only women and 
children present, w^ithdrew. This party of guards was on 
a raid, and had apparently been directed to the place in 
search of Mr. Carroll and Judge Neal. 

These gentlemen seemed to have been a voluntary school 
board and only able to attend when the Rebels were in 
command of the city. Later Mrs. Price taught school here. 
The Hidalgo, a school for young men and boys, was founded 
by Professor Doherty, w'ho was president of the school for 
many years, afterward selling out to Professor Campion, 



The Story of Corpus Christi 81 

who kept the school until the excellent public schools estab- 
lished by the State made its maintenance unnecessary. Pro- 
fessor Doherty was a gentleman of rare ability, and the new 
country and village were fortunate in having people of this 
class as citizens. The family name is prominent still in this 
and adjoining counties, and we believe that the lady superin- 
tendent of the public schools of Bee County is a member of 
this family, who gave much for the cause of education at an 
early date, and to whose teaching we believe we owe much 
of our prosperity. Though for many years a border town, 
we were never a lawless community, or ever disgraced by 
border feuds or mob rule. 

Professor Meredith established a school for young 
ladies. Among other teachers of an early day w^ere Pro- 
fessor Carpenter and wife, Professor McOmber and wife. 
Mrs. Richardson, a Mr. Easterly, Mr. Richardson, Miss 
Burke, and for a while, at a very early date, Prof. E. A. 
Atlee. Professors Hopson and Butcher taught at different 
times. As the town was clustered on the waterside, the 
earlier schoolhouses were on Water Street. Later came the 
public schools, and to get more room, the first public school- 
houses were built on the bluff, one for the white and one for 
the colored children. Later the colored school was moved to 
a new site, and their first building fitted up for a high school 
for white pupils. Now Corpus Christi has a magnificent 
High School building, which was erected at a cost of seven- 
ty thousand dollars, and- three splendid fireproof ward 
schools, besides several other smaller buildings. 

The children of today are reaping the harvest from 
seeds sown in early days by those hardy, conscientious 
teachers. Education was ever paramount with us. In addi- 
tion to public schools, the good Sisters of the Convent of 
Incarnate Word have for years conducted academies for 
young ladies and boys, in which the student is carried from 
the alphabet to the languages, music and art. It is an ex- 
cellent school. 



82 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Pastores. 

The Pastores are peculiarly Mexican, and are held only 
at the Yuletide season. To the Anglo-Saxon they sound 
almost sacrilegious, but these simple-minded people follow 
only the customs of their fathers. We presume they are 
the sole remaining link between the first of theatricals, fos- 
tered by the Church, and the modern drama. Anyway, at 
each Christmastide, actors are chosen and a place selected 
for performance. A great drawback is in selecting the site. 
An jacal, or hut, is cleared, and being so small, only a few 
spectators can view the show. Another serious objection is 
the total ignorance of the performers as to the value of time. 
A performance scheduled to come ofT on a certain date may 
open at 8 o'clock or at ii :30, just when everybody is ready. 
The first and leading character in the Pastores is Jesus 
Christ, who on the first night appears in a manger of 
tissue paper and tawdry finery. Comes the Wise Men, led 
by a star (very evident) to worship and bring gifts. Joseph 
and Mary in charge of the Babe. The Wise Men are shep- 
herds and carry crooks. The devil, we believe, also appears 
at the beginning of the show. Songs and chants, perhaps 
several centuries old. are repeated, and the show closes in the 
wee small hours. Next night another chapter from the life 
of our Savior is illustrated. The Saints are introduced as 
the story progresses. Judas ■ Iscariot comes on to aid the 
devil, who is ever present, and the good Saints are kept busy 
to thwart him. Each night has its chants and talks and 
actors. For twelve nights this passion play goes on. As 
the present actor learned it from his father, he transmits 
it to his children, and wherever there is a few of the Mexican 
race gathered together, there is given the Pastores, a cross 
between a Christmas festival and a religious duty. 

Though San Antonio, with her usual modesty, claims 
to be the only city in Texas in which you may see the play, 



The Story of Corpus Christi 83 

you will find it anywhere on the Texas border, and through- 
out Mexico, the only diiTerence being in a richer community, 
perhaps finer costumes and manger, but the play will be 
identical, and in a city of some size there will be several 
plays going on at the same time, and while the house in 
small, the yard will be packed with spectators who will 
stand for hours and take turns in looking in at the door or 
window, growing noisy or applauding only when St. Peter 
or some other good Saint has a tilt with the devil, in which 
his blackship always gets worsted, and the Church triumphs. 
For this peculiar, half civilized people, discovered by Cortez, 
stick to the customs and religion of their conquerors. 

The niche in the social ground plan into which fits the 
negro of the Southern States, the half-breed of the North- 
west, the Chink of the Pacific slope, is filled by the so-called 
peon Mexican in Southwest Texas. Mexican he was in the 
beginning, and Mexican to all intents he remains, though 
his father, grandfather or great grandfather probably was 
born in Texas. He is eligible to good schools, and is em- 
ployed from youth to old age by white people. He never 
adapts himself to their customs, or speaks their language, 
nor does he require wealth or worry about the future. He 
is willing to work for a part of the time, but has not the least 
fear of losing his job. Of the women of this class only an 
occasional one of them will work. They are good and capa- 
ble servants to a certain extent, but somebody must think 
for them. They keep the kitchen neat and clean, are good 
chambermaids, but I never knew one who could be entrusted 
with any but the plainest cooking, nor have they the least 
desire to learn. The men will work exceedingly well for the 
people who understand them, and size up and "soldier" on a 
stranger. Mexican servants are used almost exclusively on 
the ranches. They are perfectly content with just enough 
to keep hunger away, and a hut to live in. As a class, they 
are inveterate gamblers, and any extra money will go on 
the first game or chicken fight he finds. 

They are the most hospitable people in the world, and 
will divide the last tortillas (thin corn cakes) with a friend. 
They have the same food one day as another, tortillas 
and frijoles (pink beans dried and boiled with a little pepper 



84 The Story of Corpus Christi 

and lard for seasoning). On festive occasions they make 
tamales (meat highly flavored with pepper, rolled in a corn 
dough, wrapped in a corn shuck and steamed). The finished 
product is about the size of a fat cigar, and very toothsome. 
On very extra occasions the filling is varied by adding cur- 
rants and raisins, or using chicken in the place of beef. The 
foundation of all their dishes is plain corn. This they soak in 
lime water and then grind to a paste on a stone called a 
metate. Only a Mexican woman could manipulate one. 
Their grocery bills are very modest, and with their frugal 
w'ays they might become well to do, but seem to have no 
ambition along that line, and though they may attend school, 
which a few of them do, they scorn to speak any but the 
Spanish language, and any attempt to better their condition, 
either by Church or State, has failed signally. They are 
veritable children in some respects, whole families visiting 
the cheap shows and riding the hobby horses, or enjoying 
any childish amusement, with never a thought for tomorrow. 
In their amusements the Spanish and Indian blood is 
apparent. Bull fights are, of course, prohibited under our 
flag, but cock fighting is popular. A few years since they 
had, and may have yet, a festival on St. John's Day, called 
"Running the Rooster," only it sounds better in Spanish. 
Mounted men rode at full speed and caught at the head of a 
well-greased rooster, who was suspended by the feet at right 
height to be grabbed by passing horsemen. If he succeeded 
in getting the head from the fowl, or pulling the fowl down, 
he won. This is cruel, and I expect now prohibited on 
most ranches. Naturally cruel to animals, he is kindly in 
home life, particularly to the aged, and clannish to a de- 
gree, whole families of several generations occupying one 
hut. The advent of the hurrying stranger has changed his 
habits somewhat. Where he used to work every day of the 
week for fifty cents the day, he now gets a dollar or a dollar 
fifty, and only works half the time, no better off than in the 
old days. He, like the Chink, learns his work, and under 
no circumstances varies unless possibly when shown some- 
thing new. The women of all classes do exquisite drawn 
work, and beautiful sewing by hand. But their dress is the 
same, a skirt and shawl, called in Spanish, rebosa, summer 



The Story of Corpus Christ: 



and winter, and they seem perfectly indifferent either to 
heat or cold. 

This sketch, of course, refers to the class known as 
peons in Mexico, the class to which President Diaz handed 
the order to keep out of Mexico City during the Centennial 
of 1910, unless they wore pantaloons, shoes and hats; the 
class who prefer exposing their children to smallpox and 
being done with it, to having them vaccinated, and who hide 
their sick from the American doctors. A class far more 
picturesque than clean, giving ordinary care to any work on 
hand, and enjoying idleness as no other people can, but a 
very necessary element in this country where no other ser- 
vants may be had, though perfectly useless to the stranger 
who does not understand his ways. He is apparently with- 
out reasoning power. 1 f employed in midwinter and told to 
start morning fires, he will keep them going in July if not 
stopped. Or if irrigating the garden is one of his duties, he 
will start the water flowing at the usual hour, though a 
heavy rain be -falling, and the garden under several inches 
of water. Consequently the employer must be on duty every 
h(jur of every day. 

In a file of old papers, the Nueces Valley published in 
Corpus Christi, we find under the date of Saturday, August 
2.^, 1870, the retiring address of the founder of the paper, 
B. F. Neal. He says : "This issue terminates our connec- 
tion with the paper. When we commenced the publication 
of the Valley, our town was prosperous, and gave evidence 
of future greatness, but things now are not like they were. 
Another consideration, our health has gradually been giving 
way for the last twelve months. We do not feel able to 
attend to the duties of publishing a newspaper. We leave 
it to younger heads, men possessing more intellectual and 
physical ability than we do at this time." 

He then states that all contracts for subscriptions and 
• advertisements will be fulfilled by his successors. The value 
of the paper will be greater, as it will hereafter be the of- 
ficial organ of this District. In another article Judge Neal 
emphatically declines to serve on the County Radical 
Committee. 

The old Southerner declines to profit by the niisfor- 



86 The Story of Corpus Christi 

tunes of his people, or to join the forces of his enemy, and 
this child of his brain, solace of his old age, his beloved 
paper, passes out of his hands and is edited by one 
Drummond. 

Under date of November 21, 1870, we find the follow- 
ing order from the State Capitol, verbatim: "Proprietor of 
Nueces Valley. You are hereby notified that I have this 
day appointed your paper, Nueces Valley, the official organ 
of i6th Judicial District. Signed E. J. Davis, Governor. 
James P. Newcomb, Secretary of State, in year of our Lord 
1870, Independence of Texas Thirty-fifth year." This noti- 
fication did not reach Corpus Christi until late in December. 
On December 24 the editor tells the public that his paper 
has been appointed ofificial organ for the following counties : 
Nueces, Calhoun, San Patricio, Victoria and Duval, the 
latter unorganized. He also notified his readers that any 
legal notice published in any other paper, or any notice of 
sale, or any sale made, would be void, unless due notice of 
same was published in his paper. 

F'or the next few years this editor had a clear monopoly, 
and little but legal notices appeared in its columns, but we 
gather a few local items. Copying from issue of August 
24, 1870, we get : "To the recruiting ofificer at Corpus 
Christi : Go on with recruiting, no change in order No. 3. 
Signed by the Governor." The next issue calls attention : 
"Young men between ages 18 and 45 wishing to join Ninth 
Regiment, Mounted State Guards, Colonel T. C. Barden, call 
at City Hall at 8 p. m. Saturday evening when company will 
be organized and elect officers. Men and officers will be 
mounted and equipped immediately." Later we learn that 
they met and elected D. Sprague, Captain; M. \\'. Myers, 
First Lieutenant ; William Ohler, Second Lieutenant. 

Later Sheriff John McClare reports that he had en- 
rolled three hundred and sevent) militiamen. This was the 
famous State Guard with which Governor Davis attempted ' 
to rule Texas, and which to this day are remembered as 
licensed freebooters, and rendered their name of State Guard 
a term to be hated. But in our part of the State we needed 
this guard to defend our border from raiding Indians and 
Mexicans. Their work was legitimate, and the good people 



The Story of Corpus Christi 87 

of this section never realized what Carpetbag rule meant to 
other parts of the State, and many good men enrolled for 
the protection of their homes. But better times were fast 
coming. In October, 1871, the registered vote of our coun- 
ty was seven hundred. In November, same year, the county 
goes Democrat by five majority. Better still, the District 
hands in a Democratic lemon of fair size. Vale Carpet- 
bagger forevermore. Texas has again won her independ- 
ence, and we are glad t(j relate more pleasant events. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Early Newspaper Articles. 

On October i, 1871, the first public school opened in 
Corpus Christi with one hundred and forty-six pupils, the 
late Judge Stanley Welch coming down from San Antonio 
to organize it. He succeeded and placed Professor Hanna 
in charge as superintendent, and the children of that day 
and time had several surprises coming their way. Professor 
Faupel opened a music school. Better still, Professor Mc- 
Donald opened a dancing academy. The Convent of the 
Incarnate Word advertised for pupils. What a lot of work 
for our one hundred and forty-six shavers. But the older 
people were keeping pace, and things were picking up rap- 
idly. The old light house on the blufT was torn away. It 
was never used, but it was picturesque and its removal was 
regretted. The first fire engine came about this time and 
our first fire company organized, with the kindly, genial 
Felix Nossel as president, and the ec}ually popular James 
McKenzie as secretary. 

From files of the old papers we see fine loin steaks ad- 
vertised at five cents the. steak. There were no barbed wire 
fences in those days. In December, 1871, Captain H. Haw- 
ley, of the schooner Bessie, brings in a fine lot of green 
turtles and distributes them among his friends. Fish are 
torpid from cold and many picked up in shoal water, particu- 
larly pompanos. 

Other items of this holiday season of '71 and '72 were: 

"Herman Meuly has an up-to-date book store." "There 
are at present twenty-eight pianos in town." City Marshal 
P. Whelan publishes a notice that dogs must be tagged, and 
hogs penned up. Our artesian water is found to contain 
sulphurate of hydrogen gas, carbonic acid gas. sulphate of 
soda, chloride of calcium, sodium, bicarbonate of iron. The 
well has stopped flowing and the citizens are wanting it 
started again. About this date a firm at Banquette sent in, 



The Story of Corpus Christi 89 

as payment for goods, to Colonel N. Gussett, a goods box 
and a corn sack full of silver coin. 

Mr. D. Hirsch opened a dry goods and grocery store. 
This gentleman was a citizen of the old school, and Corpus 
Christi owes much to his memory. In addition to his large 
business interests, he was identified with every public move- 
ment for the good of our city. He was president of the 
■ first National Bank ever opened here. He gave much time 
and care to our public schools, and as president of the school 
board, did much to make our High School one of the finest 
in the State, and one of the first three schools to be afi^iliated 
with the University of Texas. Going back and still quoting 
the Valley paper, we find a report on an election for Justice 
of the Peace. In 1870 a Governor's proclamation published 
orders for the polls to open on Monday morning, and to 
stay open until the following Thursday at sundown. Think 
of it, four days to poll seven hundred votes ! 

On May 13, 1871, w^e find the first notice of a bonus 
asked of our people, when the freeholders of the city petition 
the Mayor, J. B. Mitchell, to order an election to decide by 
ballot if we will vote bonds to the amount of $25,000 to pay 
the Texas Navigation Company to dig a channel up to our 
wharf. I give the names of the freeholders of that date : 
Charles \\'eidenmuller, J. W. Ward, H. L. Allen, James R. 
Barnard, J. S. McCampbell, Felix Nossel, C. Cahill, F. 
Stephenson. James McKenzie, L. Webber, Byrne & Buckley, 
T. Baldeschwiller. H. T. O'Brien, John Dunn, J. Pollan, J. 
Cody, F. Werner, R. Doherty, Ben Gravett, F. Overton, 
William Dyree, Susan Leonard, Joe Almond, W. B. Wrath- 
er, Fred Busse, H. Taylor, Ed Windisch, Richard Power, 
R. Jordan, J. C. Russell, William Headen, Thomas C. Kear- 
ney, George F. Evans, H. W. Berry, George Hobbs, T. B. 
Mussett, F. Fabebe, P. Leonard, B. F. Neal, Thomas Allen, 
T. Parker, P. Benson, J. T. Atwood, Pat McCabe. L. D. 
Brewster, George Gold, J. R. Peterson, E. T. Joy. J. Fitz- 
simmons, T. Forsch, W. S. Rains, P. Whelan, Henry F. 
Barnard, A\'illiam Headen, Sr., C. Lovenskiold, \\ . Staples, 
John Fogg. P. Hoffman, P. H. McManigle, P. Doddridge, 
J. B. Mitchell, Kletus Hoffman, A. Albertson, Kate Mc- 
Manigle. Alonza ^Montgomery. 



90 The Story of Corpus Christi 

The election is ordered for June 3, 1871. We quote 
returns. "Hurrah ! The election is over ! Never before 
have we been called on to vote on a matter of public import- 
ance. On the first call Corpus Christi comes out right side 
up. The entire registered vote of the city is one hundred 
and eighty-one. W'hen the polls closed it was found that one 
hundred and fifty had been cast, every one of them for the 
channel and not one against it."' And to this day, 191 5, we 
vote aye to everything proposed for the good of the city. 

On June 17 Governor Davis visited the city and sold 
his home to N. Gussett for four thousand dollars. The house 
yet stands, corner Broadway and Leopard Streets. P. Wlie- 
lan was City Marshal. The Corpus Christi and Indianola 
U. S. Mail line advertised, "Fast schooners, Agnes, Henri- 
etta and Emily. Captains Moore, Stephenson and Stein- 
hardt." 

"The Presbyterian ladies netted six hundred dollars 
on a fair for their church. Gen. S. G. Brown was Revenue 
Collector for this District, Thomas Kearney for this port. 
Twenty-three large carts of bonded goods were sent by S. 
D. Brewster to the City of Mexico." Again quoting, "June 
I, fine grapes grown in Corpus Christi. Sweet potatoes sell 
at four dollars per bushel. Mr. J. W. Scott tells editor that 
best beeves sell for $12 to $15 per head. May 13, 1871, ter- 
rific hailstones fell west of Corpus Christi, wounding four 
men, and killing seventeen cattle for James Bryden, who is 
starting a herd to Kansas." 

Our paper now gets a little spiteful. We quote the 
editor : "We thought that the War ended on the Rio Grande, 
but it seems that Judge Russell has renewed hostilities. He 
has dismissed the quarantine officer at Point Isabel for the 
sole reason that he is not a physician." Then a long article 
as to this lese majesty. "He not only dismissed the ofificer, 
but jailed one Captain Burke of the State Militia who at- 
tempted to reinstate him." Captain Burke refused to accept 
freedom and waited for Governor Davis to intervene, but 
the old State was gaining her freedom. Davis had pressing 
business at other points and Judge Russell lived to lead many 
a Democratic meeting to victory. 

Dodderidge & Lott opened the first bank in Corpus 



The Story of Corpus Christi 91 

Christi. We copy a big ad of September 13, 1870: "One of 
the largest exhibitions of stock ever seen in West Texas will 
be sold without reservation on the above date at Rancho 
Palo Alto, twenty-one miles west of Corpus Christi. Fif- 
teen hundred head of horses, mules and colts, sold in lots to 
suit purchaser. Also cattle, two thousand head. Sheep five 
thousand head, improved sheep. Also Laguna or Palo Alto 
Ranch, 500 acres with improvements. Good dwelling of five 
rooms, kitchen, outhouses and good stock pens. Terms cash 
or its equivalent in U. S. currency, on delivery of property. 
The Nueces County jockey Club, recently organized, will 
have a committee on hand to judge stock and award pre- 
miums in accordance thereto, to be governed by the rules of 
the Club to be known at time. To give greater attraction 
to the occasion a grand barbecue will be given in a grove 
near the mansion house. I-'or the sporting community ar- 
rangements will be made for all kinds of amusements, bull 
fights, horse racing, cock fights, target shooting. It is in- 
tended by its projectors to make this the most interesting 
meeting of stock and stockmen ever held in Western Texas. 
Signed, J. James and others." We suspect that one name 
represented the whole push, that one man constituted the 
Nueces Club, and that this same gentleman wanted to turn 
his holdings into money, or its equivalent in greenbacks, and 
get out. The old paper of long ago tells us nothing further 
of the meeting, and we copied the old ad to illustrate the 
difference in amusements combined with business of long 
ago and present day, and wonder what part fell to the 
suffragette. 



92 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER XX. 

Tlie First Churches. 

The first Methodist Sunday School was organized in 
Corpus Christi in 1858. We have not the names of the 
founders of this school, but of the early teachers we are 
able to record the names of William Headen, Ed Wlndisch, 
G. B. Williams and wife, Elder Headen and. wife, Col. 
John Moore and wife and daughters. For a long time this 
church was the only Protestant church in this section, and 
all Protestants met for worship there. The old church stood 
on the back of a lot at the corner of Mesquite and Mann 
Streets, a small adobe house with seating capacity of not 
more than two hundred. 

The Masonic Fraternity owned a large, rambling, two- 
story lodge room on the front of the lot. This building was 
also used as a schoolhouse, and around these two buildings 
was centered almost the entire social life of the town. Big 
meetings were held to which came the entire Protestant 
community. Dinner was brought and the day spent in 
prayer and praise, with perhaps a little gossip at intervals. 
Cotton quilts and tiny pillows were furnished by the sisters 
for the comfort of the small children, and the mother of a 
large family of youngsters did not consider the size of her 
family an excuse for staying away from church, and if she 
wanted to place them and herself in the social swim, she 
must begin in the church. The good women also organized 
a band of hope and temperance council, which met weekly 
in the Masonic Building. Little plays were gotten up, reci- 
tations learned, drills taught, and the public came to applaud. 

The Methodist people recently completed a fine new 
church on the site of the old building, and we feel proud of 
our progress, but doubt if ever again we will do the good 
work as it was done in the old days. But times change, and 
we must keep up with the times. The Masons sold out to 
the Methodists and built a lodge room in the southern part 



The Story of Corpus Christi 93 

of the city, and in 191 4 it was replaced by an up-to-date 
Temple. 

Shortly after the Civil War the other Protestant de- 
nominations withdrew and built churches of their own. The 
Presbyterians have a fine brick church, the munificent gift 
of Mrs. H. M. King, a memorial to her husband, Capt. 
Richard King. The Baptists have a new brick church, a 
credit to the congregation and a pride to the city. The 
Christian Church people have a comfortable tabernacle. 
They also have several small places of worship in the city. 
The Episcopalians have a church on one of the most desir- 
able sites in the city. The Catholics, who were first to or- 
ganize a church here, have a church for the Knglish-speak- 
ing people, a C^erman and a Mexican church. Also a large 
convent where the good Sisters maintain a most excellent 
school for young ladies, many girls coming in from farms 
and ranches to take lessons with those lovable women. 

On June 7, 1872, the village was terribly excited over 
the news of the murder of Mr. George Hatch, an old and 
respected citizen. He was shot to death in his buggy, on the 
north side of the reef, in full view of the town. Mr. Hatch 
was an early settler and owned a splendid vineyard at Ingle- 
side. His habit of making a weekly trip to Corpus Christi 
for mail and supplies was undoubtedly known to his assas- 
sins, who laid an ambush and shot him. He fell forward 
across the dashboard in a kneeling position. His slayers 
cut out his pockets, took his horses from the buggy, and 
fled. A few hours later a passing traveler found the body 
and brought the news to town. His slayers were never 
caught. The citizens were terror stricken at the boldness of 
the crime, in open day and in view of the Court House. 
This old gentleman, 83 years old, was most foully slain, and 
obviously by parties wdio knew his habits, and who knew the 
locality. A mass meeting was called and a volunteer guard 
placed nightly over the sleeping hamlet. The people were 
thoroughly aroused over the crimes, including the attack on 
Captain King, the murder of Mr. Murdoc, and the poor 
men at Pensegal. But crime in the \icinity held its own 
until the famous raid of 1875. At this time the hunt for 
criminals was so earnest, that probably the gang which had 



94 The Story of Corpus Christi 

been operating in this county were exterminated for this 
latter crime. 

Unless there is something in a name, and our name of 
Body of Christ was a protection, I cannot understand how 
our little settlement escaped annihilation. This little town, 
surrounded by a dense wilderness, in which lurked the sav- 
age on hunt for scalps and lawless Mexicans hunted out of 
their own land. True, our men adorned themselves with 
six-shooters and were fine shots, but except for a few days 
or nights after some startling crime, no guard was set, or 
precautions for safety taken. We bathed, boated and lived 
as careless as we do today, and the town might have been 
rushed and taken at any time. But our Mexican citizens 
claim that storms and other calamities are averted by the 
name and would not change it to commonplace Smithville or 
Jonesboro for a King's ransom. 

We come now to a record of the old families of a later 
date. Men who came to our new country to begin all over 
and mend fortunes broken by the Civil War, men who gave 
a new start, men who gave a new impetus to the town, who 
lived the remainder of their days here, and whose children 
and grandchildren are of the old guard of this new, hustling, 
growing city of today. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 95 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Some Early Settlers. 

William Biggie, of the Confederate Navy, and who was 
one of the crew of the steamer W'ebb, which attempted to 
pass New Orleans from Vickshurg, and its Yankee gunboats 
to the open sea. The Webb was captured, but Mr. Biggio 
lived to tell the story of the foolhardy attempt, and of his 
experience in a Northern prison. For twenty years he was 
proprietor of our one hotel, the St. James, and entertained 
everybody of note who visited our town. He was a man of 
unbounded charity, and while entertaining the noted visitors, 
had ever a guard of mendicants at his kitchen door, and 
William Biggio turned no man away hungry, whether he had 
the price or not. The good name is perpetuated by several 
sons and one daughter. 

Captain James Hunter, an ex-Confederate ofificer, 
opened a livery stable and prospered. 

Mark Downey, for years a dealer in stoves, genial, 
kindly, and a credit to his adopted land. He was at one 
time a member of the City Council, and also second post 
commander of our first camp of Confederate Veterans. He 
was an Irishman and proud of it, though born in London, a 
devout Catholic, one of his brothers being a Priest. He be- 
longed to Hays' Louisiana Brigade, and came to Corpus 
Christi with his young wife directly after hostilities ceased, 
remaining in business until his death, a few years since. Mr. 
Downey is survived by several daughters and one son, Jo- 
seph. They are all Southerners, and proud of the fact. 

Colonel Spann, a courtly gentleman of the old school ; 
his sons and daughters arc residents of different localities in 
the State. 

George French, a merchant and for years a county of- 
ficial, was in the fight at Fort Esperanzo. He commanded 
a battery, and years afterwards a brother ofificer. now in the 
Confederate Home at Austin, told me that the Rebs got so 
excited that Captain TVench was in the act of storming the 



96 The Story of Corpus Christi 

other Confederate battery which he commanded ; that he had 
to hold his fire and surrender to get the mistake rectified. 

M. Lichtenstein, also a son of the South by choice, made 
a new start in life shortly after the close of hostilities, start- 
ing in a moderate way in dry goods and clothing, and 
gradually built the great business which two of his sons 
conduct today. The youngest son is an officer in the 
United States Navy, and will serve under the old flag as 
faithfully as did his honored father under the beloved 
Southern Cross. Maurice Lichtenstein was at one time a 
prisoner of war at Camp Chase, and though he had no 
strong ties in Texas, he resolutely refused to take the oath 
of allegiance to the United States, though by so doing he 
could have left the prison with all its horrors, and found 
ease and comfort with Northern relatives. He voluntarily 
returned, on being exchanged, to his command, Green's 
Texas Brigade, and served to the end of the War. 

R. G. Blossman, for years the leading grocer of our 
city, was of a staunch Southern family, having lost two 
elder brothers in the army. Mr. Blossman also started in 
a small way and until 1914 conducted a large business built 
up by his energy and business methods. 

Captain James Thompson, a Kentuckian by birth, was 
for many years in business with Mr. Blossman. He also- 
was an ex-Confederate, and retired from business a few 
years since. His death occurred in 191 5. 

August Ricklefsen, though born and reared in Germany, 
became an American citizen in every sense of the word, 
having served with poorly equipped, poorly rationed, and 
altogether unpaid Rebel Cavalry which patrolled on the 
coast. A good soldier ever makes a good citizen. August 
Ricklefsen was both. 

John Uehlinger was also a German who became a 
Southern soldier and stayed with his people, turning his 
cavalry saber not into a pruning hook but to a scoop, con- 
ducting a grocery and bakery for many years, aiding many 
of his countrymen to get a business start in the New World. 

James McKenzie doffed the gray and opened the first 
store in Corpus Christi for the sale of paints and painters' 
supplies. Mr. McKenzie was killed by a street car many 



The Story of Corpus Christi 97 

years ago, being the only victim of the early dummy line 
built here during the Ropes boom. "Little Mac," as his 
friends called him, was a good man. ever ready to visit 
and assist the sick in the days when hired nurses were un- 
known. 

Captain Thomas Beynon commanded a cavalry com- 
pany in the coast section, and made a noted ride of twenty- 
one miles to get to the bombardment of the city, reaching 
here with but a corporal's guard of his company, owing to 
the poor condition of their mounts. The Captain went 
into the livery business, and operated stage lines to the Rio 
Grande until the railroads arrived. He was at one time 
Sheriff of our county, which office he resigned to take a 
position with the Laureles Pasture Company, afterward re- 
turning and resuming, with his sons, the li\ery business. 
His death occurred in 1914. 

Captain Oliver crossed the Red River into Texas the 
day that war was declared against Mexico, served in that 
w-ar, in the Indian Wars, and again in the Confederate 
Army. The Captain told the writer an interesting story of 
one of his Indian fights. He was in Ford's Regiment and 
they had found the foe in the swamp of the Nueces River. 
A hot fight ensued and the order was passed to get ready 
to retreat. In the regiment was a man named Lyons who 
had been captured when a child by these Indians, and spoke 
the language fluently. ' When the order reached him to 
retreat at the signal of a bugle call, he said: "Run back 
and tell the Colonel to hold on ; I hear the Indians sending 
out the same order." Sure enough, in a few minutes the 
Indians were in full flight, and the whites scored a victory. 

W. B. Wrather, a Kentuckian by birth, served in border 
warfare, and later in the Army of the Confederacy, aiding 
the cause with his modest fortune, accepting State war- 
rants for gold, and to the shame of our great vState, those 
warrants were never redeemed. 

Of other Southern sympathizers, or soldiers, were the 
Dunns, the Mussetts, the Colon family. J. B. Murphy, M. 
Woessner. Alexander Dove, a native of old Scotia, who, 
like Wrather. advanced gold to his adopted State and re- 
ceived worthless paper in payment. The brothers, D. and 



98 The Story of Corpus Christi 

J. Murphy, made a new start in our town, both afterward 
moving to Laredo. 

Captain P. R. Mitchell is at present an inmate of the 
Confederate Home at Austin. The Captain first learned 
the art of war in a mixup with the Kansas Jayhawkers. 
Losing out, he came to Texas. Two of his former brother 
officers also fled to Texas, but were assassinated shortly 
after reaching what was supposed to be safety. The Captain 
profited by events, and sought seclusion on Mustang Island. 
Later he joined the regiment of Colonel Hobby's Eighth 
Texas Infantry. At one time Mitchell was in command of 
a company stationed at Corpus Pass. One day two blockade 
runners were chased into the bay by the U. S. steamer 
Iroquois. The vessels anchored inside the bay, and the 
crew and wife of one of the Captains sought safety in the 
sand hills. The Iroquois sent out a landing party in 
launches. They were discouraged by a fusilade from the 
Captain's artillery, one old four-pounder with the Captain 
as gunner, and by a scattering fire from rifles and muskets 
in the hands of the poorly equipped infantrymen, and more 
soul-harrowing than all, the Rebel yell. The launches re- 
treated and the ship opened fire on the camp. One shot 
passed through the sail of one of the blockade runners. 
The Captain's wife begged to go, and, despite advice of 
Captain Mitchell, who felt able to protect them, they boarded 
vessels and tried to escape down Laguna Madre. They 
ran aground a few miles down Padre Island. The Iroquois 
had kept pace down the island on the outside. Seeing the 
plight of the blockade runner they landed a force who 
rushed across the sands and set fire to the vessel. 

Rebel Sergeant McRae had also crossed from Mustang 
to Padre to the rescue, but the shipload of precious cotton 
was burned and the enemy back on board before he ar- 
rived. Late that night the crews got back to camp, hav- 
ing escaped in small boats, but the Captain believes to this 
day that he could have saved the cargo if the vessels had 
stayed under his one gun. Mitchell returned to Corpus 
Christi later as a Captain of the Provost Guard. He had 
obeyed an order of his superior officer, and had spilled a 
lot of illicit whiskev. After the close of the \\'ar the owner 



The Story of Corpus Christi 99 



of same preferred charges against him. A detachment of 
five negroes were sent out to his home on Popelate to 
arrest him. A whitewashed Reb commanded the party. 
The officer riding ahead of his smelly escort met Mitchell 
face to face in the road. "I have a warrant for your ar- 
rest," said he, "which means the Military Prison for you. 
Not one of these nigs knows you. Just ride on and 1 will 
go out and search your premises." Mitchell rode on and 
did not return home until late at night, when he learned 
that the negro troops had searched every spot on the farm 
for him. 

To the late Captain H. R. Sutherland, also a Con- 
federate veteran ; P. F. Dunn, our member of the Legisla- 
ture ; E. T. Merriman, J. F. Scott of Alice, Dan Reid and 
other leading Democrats of the country, we owe a debt of 
gratitude, these gentlemen having, by much hard work, 
carried our county for the best Congressman ever sent 
out from our section, Hon. John N. Garner, a Congress- 
man who has kept his promise to his people. To the in- 
fluence of these men we owe the opening of Turtle Cove 
and work on our harbor. At a banquet given Mr. Garner 
after his election, he asked his faithful adherents to name 
his first work. He wanted them to name the thing they 
wanted, the thing nearest their hearts. Mr. Sutherland 
arose and asked the appropriation for digging the channel. 
Mr. Garner promised. How faithfully he kept his word 
we all know. But so indifferent were the people generally 
about this great project that only one man, E. T. Merri- 
man. went over to see the work started, and only one man 
raised a flag pole over his place of business when the work 
was completed. 

Mr. Merriman, as manager of our best and largest 
paper. The Caller, has known but one love, his native city. 
He was the power behind the throne that made a success 
of the Woman's Cemetery Association. Again, he was one 
of three men who encouraged the ladies to build the much 
needed pavilion, Mr. Sutherland and Mr. Leary. manager 
of the E. D. Sidbury Lumber Yard, being the other two 
men who expressed their faith in the women. 

When ^Lavor Lovenskiold felt that our city was not 



100 The Story of Corpus Christi 

able to keep up the street lights, Eli T. Merriman went out 
to the citizens and raised a subscription to keep, and did 
keep, the streets lighted for two years, when the city again 
assumed the expense. He tacked posters on our first car- 
loads of vegetables, thus advertising Corpus Christi through- 
out the State, doing the work with his own hands, assisted 
by his then little son. 

Again he advertised Corpus Christi by sending a car- 
load of sea shells to Fort Worth to erect a shell tower, 
Mrs. Sidbury and a few other good women sharing the 
expense with him. He did the lion's share in raising the 
bonus to get the Brownsville road to enter the city, raising 
the last thousand dollars on the last few days of grace. In 
the years to come we may rear distinguished sons in the 
old town, but never one to give more, or as much, as did 
Eli T. Merriman, now a retired newspaper man. He gave 
so freely that the people forgot to show or even feel grati- 
tude. 

Of other firms of reconstruction days, we remember 
that of Gullet Dry Goods. John Bernard, a popular citizen 
of today, was a stepson of Mr. Gullet, and a clerk in this 
store. 

Bloomenthal & Jordt Dry Goods Company, John 
Jordt afterward going into the furniture business and build- 
ing up the business of which he is the senior member to- 
day, a business of such magnitude as to rank equal to 
anything of its kind in the State. 

E. Morris also carried on a large dry goods business, 
with every prospect of becoming a leading house in this line. 
Unfortunately the ill health and later death of Mr. Morris 
closed his well known place. 

John \\'oessner was also a merchant of this period, 
as were P. Hoffman, N. Gusset, Wm. Headen, afterward 
Headen & Mallory, and R. Simpson, those latter named 
gentlemen dealing in both dry goods and groceries, or 
groceries alone. The Dreyer brothers. Max and Otto, had 
an excellent show of toys, candies, tobacco and soft drinks, 
and ice cream occasionally, as this popular delicacy could 
not be served regularly unless we had our ice house at 
home, the weekly supply by steamer not being a certainty. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 101 

Captain Andrew Anderson had a mill on Water Street 
where fresh cornmeal was ground weekly. The Captain 
also put up a good grade of salt. A windmill furnished the 
power. Occasionally the steamer brought a few crates of 
cabbage, or barrels of apples, otherwise the stock of the 
early merchants was strictly staple. 

Of other business men of more than a quarter of a 
century ago we remember the kindly and benevolent Julius 
Henry, a pioneer merchant, as was also C. W'eidenmuiler 
and a Mr. Poll in. 

Of the professional men, John H. McCampbell, after- 
ward associated with the eminent jurist, Robert Stayton, 
and later with the firm of McCampbell & Welch. Mr. 
McCampbell was a Tennesseean by birth, and a soldier in 
his youth, having served as a volunteer in the war with 
Mexico. Also associated with him in business were his 
two sons, whom he survived, being the last member of the 
old and prosperous firm to answer the final roll call. J. 
H. McCampbell was of the old school, and a citizen who 
left this city better by having been a dweller therein. 

Of the early lawyers we also recall the names of J. S. 
Givens, P. A. Doherty and C. Lovenskiold. Spohn, Burke 
and Hamilton were leading physicians. Dr. Lawrence was 
also a beloved doctor in the old days as were Drs. Merri- 
man and Robertson. 



102 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Other Pioneer Residents. 

Of other early people, we look back over the many 
years and recall the names of E. H. Wheeler, shoe dealer, 
also agent for the American Sewing Machine. Mr. Wheeler 
was one of the invading army who elected to remain with 
us. Others included W. H. Daimwood, gent's furnishings ; 
A. Meuly, grocer and baker; H. Meuly, for a long time 
the only news dealer in the city, sometimes receiving his 
stock of daily papers in lots of a dozen or more; James 
Henderson, who founded the "Crony," and one of the bright- 
est of newspaper writers. Mr. Henderson was drowned 
while bathing at Central Wharf, one of the few accidents of 
the kind which have occurred on our bay, another acci- 
dent of this nature being the death of Mr. Alex Hoffman, 
near the reef. He fell from a boat, but being a noted 
swimmer, his comrades laughed at his fall, and did not 
think of danger until they saw him sink helpless beneath 
the water. The whole town mourned both of those promis- 
ing young men. 

Of other families of this time, we remember the names 
of some who are still leading names in our city. Mr. Charles 
Weil, whose sons are all in business, either with their father 
in the ranch business or in ventures of their own, the 
grocery business of Weil Brothers being an up-to-date 
establishment which would surprise the pioneer merchant 
if he could look in on the old town, both as to size and 
equipment. Mr. Gunst, who conducts a book and station- 
ery store; Charles Hyman's family, the Littig family, Mrs. 
Holbein and sons, the Hobbs and Killmers. since removed 
to Alice. The noted dry goods house of Gugenheim & 
Cohn of today is a monument to the energy of these two 
former young men who sought employment in our little 
city a quarter of a century since, Mr. Gugenheim being a 
clerk with E. Morris. They opened a dry goods store of 
moderate size, and gradually built to present grand dimen- 



The Story of Corpus Christi 103 

sions. These gentlemen have done great work for their 
adopted city, builded better than they knew. In days fol- 
lowing the Ropes boom, w4ien real estate was almost a drug 
on the market, they purchased largely, thereby showing 
their confidence in the future, and bolstering up confidence 
of others in those gloomy days. 

Of other noted families who settled near Corpus 
Christi and helped to build the city was that of Richard 
Gallagher, who opened a ranch on the Oso (Bear) Creek. 
Mr. Gallagher was from the Emerald Isle, and he and his 
good wife lived the life of pioneers proper. They are kind- 
ly remembered by all the old settlers. 

Mr. N. Bluntzer, founder of the little town of that 
name, on the Nueces River, was of German birth, and true 
to the reputation of his countrymen, was a man who builded 
and improved, an experimenter who tried the virgin soil 
and demonstrated its wealth. He never lost faith in Corpus 
Christi and in his latter years proved his faith by invest- 
ing in real estate. The Bluntzer family are of our solid 
citizenry of today. 



104 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Life of Colonel Kinney. 

Colonel Kinney was killed in Matamoros in 1865. The 
shot which ended the life of this great man was a stray 
ball. A skirmish was in progress between two factions of 
Mexicans. A friend of Colonel Kinney's, in a nearby house, 
called to him to come to his place as being safer than the 
place Kinney then occupied. He started across the yard 
and reached the door of his friend when he received the 
ball in the heart, dying instantly. 

He had been practically under fire for years. A story 
is told of him and a few settlers going out to meet a band 
of marauding Indians, who had grown so bold that they 
visited the pond in the arroyo to water their horses. The 
Colonel and his friends found the red men out about where 
the standpipe now is. The party began to circle the whites, 
who hastily fired to a man, only to see the red men catch 
the load on their buffalo head shields, and, raising the war 
whoop, they charged the settlers who now had empty guns. 
A grand Gilpin race was organized right there without any 
preliminaries. Over the bluff came the white men, to the 
brow came the foe, but for some strange reason they did 
not follow up victory, but turned and fled back to cover. 

Colonel Kinney had been on a filibustering trip to 
South America and from this grew much misery, as shortly 
after his death a claim, known as the Jones claim, was 
placed against his estate. To give justice to all parties, the 
people were offered a fair settlement, but having paid for 
their property, they refused the terms. Later a U. S. 
Marshal and detachment of troops dispossessed many of 
the people, and for years the trouble was on. As the writer 
understood the case, the claimant, Levi Jones, had advanced 
money for the expedition, taking a mortgage on Kinney's 
land. Kinney later sold out lots to settlers and they knew 
nothing of the mortgage until the claim was filed. 

In the late seventies the writer saw some hard cases 



The Story of Corpus Christi 105 

of evictions, which must have reminded our Irish friends 
of the old sod, under British rule. One woman went to 
market one morning, and on her returning home found her 
children and belongings in the street. She was never again 
to enter the little home w'hich she had mostly built with her 
own hands, even wading out into the bay to gather shell 
to make lime for its walls. But the worst sufferers were 
the orphans, of whom there were many, as the result of the 
last yellow fever epidemic, they having no one to fight their 
claims or find the money to pay them. But it is all settled 
now, and if you asked the business man of today about 
the Jones claim, he would likely ask who Jones was, or 
what about him, though many sore hearts studied the ques- 
tion in the old days. 

But we began to chirk up, the agents began to visit 
our quarter of Texas, the parlor-organ man got in, we 
bought largely, we had the change in those days, and soon 
the silence of eventide w-as rent to tatters by its wailing. 
Next came the piano man, and again w'e invested. The 
price of many a good Texas steer, horns, hoofs and hide, 
went to cater to the musical taste of our populace. The 
next fad was a light phaeton or buggy. W'e enjoyed them 
immensely, as a gentle pony could be had for any price 
ranging from $5.00 to $20.00. 

The Ropes boom brought the electric lights and street 
cars. True the cars were motored by various methods, 
from an engine which threw soot and water all over the 
passengers, to a perfectly harmless mule. Though what- 
ever the power, the patrons usually walked back. It was 
never a success, and fifteen years elapsed before we had a 
street railway, the old one being torn up and moved on 
to some other boom town. We fell back on the original, 
and boated and picnicked. Who of the old guard does not 
remember the two Anderson boats, and the Anderson broth- 
ers, their Captains? What gay times we had on the old 
"Flour Bluff" or the "Two Brothers." True, they were 
sailboats, and slow compared with the motor boat of today, 
but the time passed so pleasantly that we were willing to 
travel at a leisurely gait. 



106 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Haverty vs. McClane. 

In looking over the files of old papers, we find a most 
remarkable case which we give as a sample of justice of 
reconstruction days, interesting from the number of peo- 
ple mentioned, ranging from the humblest officers of this 
(Nueces) County, to those of Judicial District 14, to Gov- 
ernor, landsmen, sailors, soldiers, U. S. officers, from 
Captain to Brigadier up the line to the apex. President 
U. S. Grant. While the proceedings cover pages and pages 
of foolscap, and the New Orleans Picayune, of May 30, 
1869, gives four pages to correspondence on the case, and 
the Chicago Tribune and other papers of the day gave 
considerable space to various dates, we will give the pro- 
ceedings of various courts as briefly as possible, and write, 
or rather copy, from the New Orleans papers as a curiosity. 

First, we find that under date of August 19, 1865, at 
office of Post Quartermaster Corpus Christi. Texas, re- 
ceived of Lieutenant J. W. Barnett, A. A. O. Master, U. S. 
Army, on board the U. S. schooner Lilly, following pack- 
ages of sixty-one bales of wool, averaging 369 pounds to 
the bale, 420 averaging 79 pounds each, 40 pounds old cop- 
per, one barrel tobacco. This shipment is made by order 
of Brigadier General Rupell, with permission for owner 
or consignee to accompany same. G. W. Barrett, Lieu- 
tenant Fifteenth Regiment, U. S. C. Infantry. Post Quarter 
Master. Consigned to D. Haverty, New Orleans. I have 
affirmed this bill of lading. B. W. Gravitt, Master U. S. 
sloop Lilly. 

Corpus Christi, Texas, October 28, 1865. 

Received from W. B. Wrather eighty bales of wool 
belonging to John McClane, weighing in the aggregate 
52,685 pounds. (Signed) Haverty & Hill. 

Thus begins the famous suit. Haverty, who was a 
sutler in a negro regiment, can get transportation on a 
Government vessel which he does for Mr. McClane's four 



The Story of Corpus Christi 107 

years' clip of wool, which he purchases for 20 cents per 
pound, but fails to make returns. He, Haverty, goes to 
Chicago, where in the latter days of '67 he takes benefit 
of the bankrupt act. 

McClane, a rigidly honest man, is appointed Sheriff 
of Nueces County. Getting requisition papers from Gov- 
ernor Pease of Texas, and acting under advice of his at- 
torney, the afterward notorious E. J. Davis, he, with the 
Texas agent, A. McLaughlin, goes to Chicago in January, 
1868. Getting a couple of Pinkerton detectives there to aid 
them, they arrest Haverty, rush him to the depot and en- 
train for Texas. McClane does not figure in the arrest, 
but meets them at the depot in Chicago, wearing, as Haverty 
afterward testified, a Bowie knife in his belt, and carrying 
a six-shooter in his hand. 

They brought the prisoner back to Corpus Christi, and 
on January 20 placed him in Nueces County jail under 
commitment signed by John Dix, County Judge, and also 
bureau agent. He offers bond, not considered good by 
Judge Scott of the Fourteenth District, is held, according 
to his later testimony, in an iron cage nine feet square, 
and much is said of this terrible cage, though we l)clieve 
that every jail in Texas is equipped with them today. Judge 
Scott was not a citizen of the Fourteenth District, and was 
finally removed, though General J. J. Reynolds, then com- 
manding this military district, acting at instigation of Pease 
and E. J. Davis, endeavored to retain him. 

The New Orleans Picayune, of May, 1868, speaks of 
E. J. Davis as that malevolent spirit who has been a stirrer 
of strife on the border for the past fifteen years. But the 
Carpetbagger Scott was removed. Lieutenant Colonel Wil- 
son, U. S. A., was sent by General Hancock to Corpus 
Christi to look into the case. He reports that he had irons 
taken off the prisoner. He reports on the iron cage again. 
The case is getting to be celebrated by now, and General 
McCook, acting under orders of General Buchannan, and 
General Buchannan acting under orders of General Grant, 
removes Scott and appoints Judge Carpenter. Appointment 
by McCook affirmed by Buchannan, but General Hancock 
is ordered to ^\"ashington, and Reynolds, being in command. 



108 The Story of Corpus Christi 

sustains action of Governor Pease and Attorney Davis. 
Five months pass before Haverty finally gets a hearing. 
At this trial Pryor Lea, of Goliad, appears. The New Or- 
leans paper says he (Lea) formerly of Mississippi, is a 
man whose personal and professional character lifts him 
far above the plane occupied by Davis. 

In June, 1868, a military board convened in Corpus 
Christi, presided over by Brigadier General A. D. McCook. 
Mr. McClane asks, by letter sent to John Dix to General 
McCook, for certified copy of Haverty's testimony. An 
answer dated following day, at King's Ranch, curtly re- 
fuses request by order of General commanding signed G. 
H. Lincoln, First Lieutenant Twenty-Sixth Infantry, Act- 
ing Assistant Adjutant General. Next a military order de- 
clares the office of Sheriff of Nueces County vacant (July, 
'68), and an order to that effect is served from Judge J. 
B. Carpenter, by Captain Green, and the Sheriff is notified 
that any resistance to the order will be looked upon in 
military circles as contrary to military law, and get the 
Sheriff into trouble, for military law is paramount in those 
days in Texas. A military commission is ordered to con- 
vene in Brownsville on August 6, '68, and we suppose that 
as Mr. Haverty was a military man, sutler in a negro regi- 
ment, he was whitewashed. Anyway he got out of the 
little iron cage and returned to Chicago. 

In September of '68, our ex-Sheriff, seeing the utter 
futility of engaging in a controversy with the United States 
Army on the Texas border, realizing that though he was 
a native of Pennsylvania, and a Union man, that he could 
expect no favors from the powers in command, went to 
Chicago to dispute the case of Haverty in bankruptcy. Now 
Haverty comes in for his inning. He files an affidavit 
against McClane for kidnaping him, and for eight months 
he is held in the Cook County jail, only securing his re- 
lease by acting upon the advice of his lawyers and agree- 
ing to drop all claims against Haverty. He came back 
to Corpus Christi, was elected, or appointed, Sheriff again, 
when he was defeated by Thomas Beynon, late of the Con- 
federate States Army. Mr. McClane was a scrupulously 
honest man, A funny story is told of him by his friend, 



The Story of Corpus Christi 109 

Pat Whelan, Esq. It seems that during his occu[)ancy of 
Sheriff's office, an order was issued creating the office of 
Assessor, formerly held by the Sheriff. 

On examination by committee of the books, McClanc 
was found to be short in accounts $13,000. The shock of 
this disclosure sent McClane to bed sick. Mr. Whelan 
called to see him and offered his services. He was asked 
to carry a letter to Captain King, at Santa Gertrudis, who 
was on Sheriff's bond. He did so, and presenting his let- 
ter and news, Captain King laughed, saying: "Is he sick 
over it ; he must have a poor opinion of his bondsmen. Tell 
him to go to work and I will come in and fix it up in a 
few days. I know he never misused a cent of the County's 
money." A few days later the Captain did come in, and, 
hiring an expert accountant, the late Charles Lege, had the 
books examined and found them correct to a penny. Mr. 
McClane lived to an old age, dying from a paralytic stroke 
in March, 191 1. 

Captain Bcynon, after several terms, resigned as 
Sheriff and Pat Whelan, former City Marshal, filled the 
office for nine terms. The country was passing from the 
lawlessness of reconstruction days to modern methods dur- 
ing his first terms. Pat Whelan had many hard proposi- 
tions to confront. Indian and Mexican raids, frequent visits 
of bad men traveling toward the border, avowed political 
enemies who made many threats, and a succession of elab- 
orate bluffs. But he holds the unique record of having en- 
forced the law to the letter, of having got his man when he 
went after him, landing him safe in jail, many times single- 
handed, and in that long and strenuous time he never killed 
or maimed his man. A wonderful record for the time and 
place. Mr. Whelan at the present time is Justice of the 
Peace of Precinct Number One, being City Precinct, an 
office of considerable importance, a courtly old gentleman 
of a class which is rapidly passing. He, with his brotiiers, 
prosperous farmers west of the city, came to this County 
about 1866, and have been identified with its every progress 
since that date. 

In closing this little effort at authorship, we come 
forcibly to the present day. A\'ith all our advantages of 



110 The Story of Corpus Christi 

free schools, telegraphic and telephone communication and 
twentieth century civilization, we have discounted our 
fathers and forefathers in politics, and reached a state of 
civic disorganization which would cause the Carpetbagger, 
Freedmen's Bureau, Ku Klux Klan, Union Leaguer, Scala- 
wag, or any other old-fashioned politician to go to the ex- 
treme rear end of things and sit down hard. 

Our first Mayor under commission form of govern- 
ment was Hon. Dan Reid, who died in December follow- 
ing. An election was ordered for unexpired term. H. R. 
Sutherland, a Commissioner and a native, offered as can- 
didate, as did Clark Pease, the lately defeated candidate for 
office. Later Mr. Sutherland withdrew and Mr. Pease got 
the office. At the end of his term, April, 191 1, Mr. Pease 
was opposed by Mr. Sutherland as leader of the People's 
Ticket. The election was an exciting affair, and Mr. Pease 
claimed and got the office, though contested by Mr. Suther- 
land. The case being decided against Mr. Sutherland in 
the District Court, was reversed by Court of Appeals, again 
tried in the District Court before Judge W. B. Hopkins, 
and Mr. Sutherland declared elected. Again appealed by 
Mr. Pease and the decision for Mr. Sutherland again af- 
firmed. While there was much feeling in the matter, and 
the feeling is still with us we congratulate our people on 
the fact that no lawlessness grew out of the case. We are 
as ever a law abiding people and willing to await decision 
of court. Though our sister cities of San Diego and 
Brownsville have had serious trouble over city elections, in 
which six-shooter played deadly tunes, also San Antonio 
has had her. troubles, but we have stuck to our time-hon- 
ored custom of abiding by Texas law. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 111 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Civil War Battles at Corpus Christi. 

From an old paper, told by eyewitness, there were two 
engagements between the North and South on Corpus 
Beach during the Civil \\'ar. On August 7, 1862, Captain 
Kitteridge sent a small party ashore to demand surrender 
of the city, giving sixteen hours in which to remove non- 
combatants. The famous Twin Sisters cannon, which had 
figured at San Jacinto in 1836, were mounted on the bluff, 
near the site occupied by the colored Congregational Church. 
Captain Billy Mann, in command of guns, took advantage 
of the sixteen hours to move and mask his guns at about 
the foot of Hughes Street. At the expiration of the time 
named, the fleet opened fire on the city, August 7, 1863. 
Captain Mann returned the fire from his Twin Sisters, 
sending a shot through the Commander's ship at the water 
line, forcing the enemy to withdraw to Mustang Island for 
repairs. After ten days' absence the enemy again ap- 
proached the city, August 17. Kitteridge's flag ship was 
a steam gunboat. He also had three large schooners and 
a sloop loaded with a large force, well-armed and equipped 
for a determined attack. The Rebel force numbered one 
hundred and twenty men, but they stood them off until 
dark, though this small force was poorly armed and equip- 
ped, one small detachment of cavalry and small force of 
artillery, aided by a few infantrymen. 

The Yankees landed nerir the old Moore House, yet 
standing, the Rebs resorting to rifles when the enemy got 
in range, but at dark retired to the ravine (now Arroyo) 
back of the bluff, where their devoted friends slipped 
through the darkness to carry food and water to them. 
Being August, water was only to be had from cisterns, or 
seep wells on the beach. This was risky for the Rebel 
sympathizers as there was estimated ten Unionists to one 
Reb in the city, and down to the darkness of the grave 



112 The Story of Corpus Christi 

many of the people of that time carried the hate born of 
that day. The Yankees held the beach part of the city 
from this time, came and went at will, but the Rebs held 
the camp in Ravine and adjacent country, coming to the 
brow of the bluff and "smoking 'em up" occasionally when 
ammunition was plentiful, finally capturing the doughty 
Kitteridge and exhibiting him on the streets of Corpus 
Christi. Yankees were off the streets that day. It is sup- 
posed he went to prison, as he disappears from this date. 
As the Yankee fleet approached the city for the second at- 
tack. Captain Jack Sands' boat, loaded with stores, also ap- 
proached. A lively race ensued, but Jack beached his boat 
in front of Confederate position, fired her and fled. This 
was a serious loss, as the Confederates were in dire need. 
The Confederate forces at this date were under command 
of Colonel Hobby, infantry commanded by then Captain, 
afterwards Colonel John Ireland, later Governor of Texas; 
artillery Captain Neal ; cavalry by Captain James W^are. 
He captured Kitteridge and did scout duty in vicinity dur- 
ing the entire War. Captain Ware died in the Soldiers' 
Home in Austin a few years since. Lieutenant Conklin, a 
gallant young officer, mentioned in Confederate Military 
History, was in \A''are's company, and led a charge of 
cavalry against landing force, the fleet working in the beach 
and protecting landing force by its guns made the evacua- 
tion of Confederates necessary. He also made the beach 
part of the city safe to the enemy, while the force in the 
arroyo held in check their tastes for foraging on surround- 
ing ranches. 

Noted among the defenders of the wild borders of 
that day was Captain John Rabb, who commanded a com- 
pany of cavalry, and lived in the field. Captain Rabb's 
home at that time was in Banquete, and his family were 
exposed to all the hardships of the frontier. In this com- 
pany served Private John Fitch, who was with others of 
this command honorably discharged from the Confederate 
Army by company officers at the close of the War. Also 
living at Banquete at this time was Si EUiff and family. 
Those three men, Rabb, Fitch and Elliff, went into the cat- 
tle and sheep business and were for years prominent men 



The Story of Corpus Christi 113 

in this line, and did much to encourage the honest settler 
in getting a start in this new country, and in upholding the 
law and discouraging the presence of bad men in this law- 
abiding community. 

In the latter days of 1910 a Confederate Camp was 
organized in Corpus Christi. The meeting was held in the 
office of Hugh R. Sutherland. The camp was named for 
the late Captain H. R. Sutherland, Company A, Ninth Regi- 
ment, Alabama Volunteers, Army of Northern Virginia. 

G. \Y. Shannon, Commander. 

Joseph Black, Lieutenant Commander. 

H. R. Sutherland, Honorary Member, Adjutant. (Son 

of Captain.) 
H. G. Webster, Chaplain. 
G. H. Harvey, Treasurer. 
J. \\'. Wilkie, Color Bearer. 
Mrs. Shannon, Honorary Member. 
Mary A. Sutherland, \\'idow of Captain Sutherland, 

Honorary Member and Historian. 

Charter Members. 

Lee Rogers, First Texas Cavalry; J. G. Price, Rattan's 
Company, Simms' Battalion ; Charles GoUihar, Thirty-third 
Texas Cavalry; J. E. W'elborn. Company H, Fourth Ten- 
nessee Cavalry; W. McGregor, First Texas Regiment; 
Clay Roberts, Fifty-fourth Alabama; R. G. Penn, Nine- 
teenth Texas Cavalry; J. N. Caruther, Third Arkansas; J. 
H. Estes, Company C. Thirteenth Mississippi ; A. Webster, 
McManus' Battalion, Louisiana; G. \\'. Shannon, Company 
C, Eleventh Mississippi; S. F. Ray, Company G, Twenty- 
seventh Infantr}^ ; J. R. \\'ilkie. Company H, Waddell's 
Battalion ; J. A. Black, Company B. Thirty-fifth Mississippi ; 
R. B. Casey, Company F, Lewis' Regiment, Mississippi In- 
fantry; J. E. Stephens. Company F, Bushnell's Texas Regi- 
ment; G. H. Harvey, Company F, Ninth Alabama; H. 
Burgoon, First Texas ; James Field, First Texas ; Ed Atkin- 
son. Thirty-third Texas Cavalry; P. Pulliam. First Bat- 
talion, Missouri Infantry; Jacob Miller. First Missouri Cav- 
alry; J. M. Bailey, Company B, Sixteenth Arkansas In- 



114 The Story of Corpus Christi 

fantry; M. P. Craig, Ninth Kentucky Cavalry; W. A. Fick- 
lin, Wells' Legion; A. D. Floyd, Company B, Gregg's Ten- 
nessee Regiment; A. J. O'Neal, Company C, Third Ten- 
nessee Infantry. Later the names of Captain Thomas 
Beynon and Captain J. B. Thompson were added, both gal- 
lant Texas Cavalrymen in their youth. The members of 
this camp are all representative citizens of this community, 
whose labor and integrity haye built a new South, and made 
the name of Southerner a proud distinction at home and 
abroad. 

In 1891 or 1892 a Confederate Camp was organized 
in Corpus Christi, with Captain H. R. Sutherland as first 
Post Commander. Captain Sutherland, appointed Lieuten- 
ant Colonel too late in the War to get commission. Com- 
pany A, Ninth Regiment Alabama Volunteers, was suc- 
ceeded by Mark Downey, of Hays' Louisiana Brigade. The 
Camp was named Joseph E. Johnston. Many members are 
now removed or passed over to rest under the shade of 
the trees. A committee of ladies erected a small monu- 
ment in old Bayview Cemetery to the memory of Con- 
federate dead, the first monument ever erected in Corpus 
Christi. It was placed in 1906, August 6. Committee, Mrs. 
Wm. Biggio, Mrs. H. R. Sutherland. Executive committee, 
Mrs. W. B. Wrather, Vice President; Mrs. T. B. South- 
gate, Corresponding Secretary. June, i86t. 

After half a century, June, 191 1, the family of Captain 
H. R. Sutherland applied for Cross of Honor, given by U. 
D. C. As it was necessary to find witness who knew 
Captain Sutherland in the Army, a letter was addressed to 
Captain A. L. Scott, formerly of the Ninth Alabama Regi- 
ment, later a citizen of San Antonio, and one time Post 
Commander of Confederate Veterans of that city. The fol- 
lowing is testimony received in Captain Scott's own words : 

"Captain Sutherland's standing as a gallant and de- 
voted soldier and officer was recognized as being unsur- 
passed by that of anyone in the Regiment. Captain Suther- 
land was in command of the Regiment at Second Cold 
Harbor and Reams Station. In the thick of one of those 
battles (Second Cold Harbor and Reams Station) Captain 
Sutherland was giving some very emphatic orders on that 



The Story of Corpus Christi 115 

part of the line. The incident is particularly impressed on 
my mind by the display of temper on his part at something 
that was not being done to suit him, and his conspicuous 
gallantry at a critical juncture of desperate battle." 

Captain Sutherland's family remembers the story of 
Reams Station, how the Captain led his Regiment, how with 
every field officer dead or in prison the command came to 
him, how at his order to advance only his own Company 
A obeyed the order, the Regiment not knowing him as Com- 
mander, how under a galling fire he ran back and begged, 
implored, ordered, fought with the flat of his sword, and 
won. The old Ninth, a skeleton regiment, lived right up 
to its reputation, and under that fire and on that field Cap- 
tain Sutherland won the undying respect of his command. 
This day, of all the days of a long life, was the proudest 
of Captain Sutherland's life. He possessed a powerful 
memory, and in old age often mentioned every man in his 
company by name, and where he died, for all but a cor- 
poral's guard died in battle. The Captain was desperately 
wounded at Salem Church, and again while defending 
the Crater, after the mine explosion at Petersburg. He died 
in Corpus Christi July 4, 1906. 



116 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Stories of Early Days. 

After General Taylor left Corpus Christi on his way 
to Mexico, the few inhabitants had a long, lonely wait for 
company. An occasional hunter or little wagon train from 
the interior was the only break in the monotony. But hope 
springs eternal in the human breast, and the winter even- 
ings around the mesquite fire, or the neighborly meetings 
on porches under the brilliant moon, were passed with 
stories of the prosperity soon to come ; for Corpus Christi 
was ever loyal. A favorite tale was the conquest of South 
and Central America. A great depot of stores and base of 
supplies was to be established here, at this nearest point 
to the land of promise. Here the expedition would form 
and make a quick dash for this land of gold. Fabulous 
stories wxre told of tht wealth to be garnered there, and 
at this date it seems strange that any converts could be 
found. But such was the case, and as shrewd a man as 
Captain Kinney undoubtedly was, he was lured by the tale, 
and the story goes that it was to get money to fit out an 
expedition to Honduras, that he made the mortgage to Levi 
Jones which worked such hardship on our people in later 
years. 

Apparently the citizens of that day had not read the 
conquest of Mexico by Cortez, or Peru by Pizarro, or they 
would have known that there were no gleanings in the wake 
of the Spaniard. The few years intervening between Mexi- 
can and Civil W^ar saw gradual growth by emigration. 
The first white child was born in Corpus Christi, Andrew 
Baldeschwiller, and then came the armed force again, not 
to conquer territory, but to defend home institutions. No 
great depot of supplies, or war equipment in evidence, a 
small force of determined men, armed with their own guns, 
and under a banner fashioned from women's silk dresses, 
the waters of the bay and the game on the prairies fur- 



The Story of Corpus Christi 117 

nishing the commissary, the fight for food being more 
strenuous than the skirmishes with the boys in blue. 

Some time in the '50's, on the 17th of March, St. Pat- 
rick's Day, the bay froze over near the shore, and the whole 
population was treated to unlimited fish, the men going up 
the reef in carts, and picking up all that they cared to haul 
home, the fish being torpid from the unusual cold. This 
is the only record we have of a late spring, March being 
a spring month with us. Just how cold it was we are not 
able to say, as this was before establishment of Weather 
Bureau. This reef, dividing Corpus Christi Bay from the 
Bay of Nueces, cut quite a figure in the early days, being 
then about three miles north of the city, but now the town 
has gradually expanded until it has become a suburb. 

The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad has a 
bridge there now, three miles long. The old wagon road, 
with its many twists and turns, following the apex of the 
reef of oyster shells, making distance to be traveled more 
than twice that distance as used many years. This road 
at one time was our only outlet northward, and was care- 
fully staked to mark the safe path, as the road was under 
water, and if the traveler deviated from it. he was sure to 
get into trouble and deep mud at one and the same time, 
with an excellent chance of drowning his team. To pas- 
sengers on outgoing or incoming trains, these road stakes 
looked like a puzzle, but to the traveler of early times they 
were carefully studied, and learned to a turn. This same 
reef was a great fishing ground for big fish. 

Here history began, with landing of General Taylor's 
Army, here the Indian must be looked ovit for as he laid 
in wait for the unwary traveler, here one night a dead sea 
cow floated up and created a little ripple of excitement as 
the first of its kind to be found in these waters, and here 
the deadly rattler made his last stand, disputing territory 
with the small boy of that day, who pastured his milch 
cows on the rich salt grass of its meadows. One boy of 
that day, a gray haired man now, told me of an ad\'enture 
of his. in early days while following the cows home. He 
was barefoot, and to avoid the plentiful grass burrs, was 
leaping to bare spots of sand. Mistaking a coiled rattler 



118 The Story of Corpus Christi 

for a foothold, he landed fair. The snake struck and fas- 
tened his fangs in the boy's clothing, then ensued a race 
such as was never equaled on the nearby track of later 
years. The boy fled to the beach and on into the water, 
never halting until the walking got bad and swimming neces- 
sary, when he discovered that he had parted company with 
his enemy, nor did he ever again go to the pasture for cows 
on foot. 

In an early day a man named Zeigler planted salt cedars 
on a spot near the reef, built a house and opened a beer 
garden — an institution dear to the heart of the German. But 
the venture was a failure and only the grove of those strange 
trees remain to mark the site of our first (and glad to sa)^) 
and only beer garden. The body of land north of the bayou 
remained a pasture for butchers of the city for years, but 
our growing city demanded room and now the new Beach 
Hotel and many beautiful homes are built in the old pas- 
ture. A street car line runs through its heart, and the 
old gives place to the new. Other spots dear to the heart 
of the small boy of the old days was Salt Lake and Three 
Mile Point. Salt Lake, a mile west of the old town, was 
a great place to catch crabs, and hunt wood rats, while the 
young sportsman got his first chance at wild ducks and 
geese from its banks. Sometimes the fowls were of the 
tame variety, property of nearby farmers, but what differ- 
ence if he could hit and get away with them? 

Three Mile Point was the boundary of the small boys' 
world to south of the city. Here he could find the eggs of 
the sea bird, perhaps an armadillo, and often see a herd of 
deer, or a drove of javelinas which he did not care to med- 
dle with. But alas, Salt Lake is dry, and the magnificent 
Alta Vista Hotel stands upon Three Mile Point, while the 
city steadily crowds up to and beyond them, and the small 
boy of today must go further afield for his sport. But like 
the Indian and the buffalo, the boy of his kind has gone 
forever. And perhaps as well. The world must progress 
and he of the present day must fit himself for the new order 
of things, a much easier life than that of his father, but if 
left to the vote of the same boy, we believe he would prefer 
the old life with its freedom and dash of danger, dear to 



The Story of Corpus Christi 119 

the heart of the American youth, more particularly to the 
youth of South Texas, to whom the change from the free 
life of the prairies, the round-up and the cattle drive, have 
come so rapidly that he can hardly realize that it has passed 
forever. 



120 The Story of Corpus Christi 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Our Mexican Citizens. 

The following story comes to the writer from a Nueces 
County Ranch, and illustrates our Mexican servant as he is. 

Two horses were missing from the corral and Pedro 
had orders to find them. He spent the day in search, and 
returned empty handed at nightfall. Another day was spent 
with like results (afterward learned that Pedro had spent 
the two days at a fiesta nearby, and had taken a prominent 
part in the festivities, chicken fights, running the rooster, 
and other sports dear to the heart of the Aztec). On his 
return to the ranch at the close of the second day he found 
the ranchman mad. Calling Pedro up he proceeded to give 
emphatic orders, Pedro should go out in the morning and 
get the horses, get them quick or not return. And poor 
Pedro retired to his cabin almost broken in spirit. Long 
after the lights were out in the ranch house the kind-hearted 
mistress of the house heard him repeating his prayers. Poor 
fellow, he w'as born on the place and knew no other home. 
Next morning at an early hour the ranch lady saw him pre- 
paring to start again on his search. He was intently work- 
ing on something on the fence. Going near, she saw that 
he had dressed a forked twig up in gay colored rags and 
was tying it on the top rail. "What is this?" she asked. 
"Esta es Cristo," said he. Then he spoke to the figure in 
plain terms. If he did not find the horses he would rend 
it limb from lim.b, pour boiling oil over its head, place 
its feet in living coals, and then the lady fled. Two hours 
later a very proud Pedro turned the missing stock into the 
corral, and, going over to the fence, reverently taking off 
his hat, carefully removed the figure from the fence, tak- 
ing off the rags, and returning the twig to the brush heap. 
And to this day he and his family know that the Cristo 
guided him to the missing horses on that day. Nor has it 
ever occurred to him that he might have got them on his 
first search if he had looked for them and eschew^ed the 



The Story of Corpus Christi 121 

fiesta. As a race, he is superstitious, so much so that his 
employer knows it is useless to try to combat his ignorance. 
He believes in the evil eye, and ghosts are common, old men 
and women sitting on the sunny side of the jacal and tell- 
ing hair-raising stories all forenoon without a thought as 
to where the midday meal is to come from. One favorite 
story is of the belated wanderer who sees a great white 
•cross rise up out of the ground in front of him. turning 
him back from sure death. Another is a story from some 
nearby town of a woman who is so bad that she seats her- 
self on the ground and cannot arise. Her friends cannot 
raise her, even though they pull her arms off and she sure- 
ly disappears before their eyes. In Corpus Christi this is 
a popular story from Brownsville, occasionally mo^•ing to 
Rio Grande City or San Antonio. 

The common run of the Mexican population do not 
know who is President of our Country, or Governor of our 
State, the Justice of the precinct being the only officer 
which they have dealings with, believing him to correspond 
with their Alcalde, they bring all their troubles to him. It 
was truly told of one Justice of an early day that he set 
up a satisfactory divorce court. The parties appeared be- 
fore him, and upon a payment of a fee of five dollars, he 
stood them up back to back, and at the word they set out 
in different directions, and were thereafter free. He dis- 
trusts the white man (perhaps for cause), but in all great 
matters of note he must come to him for advice, not hesi- 
tating a moment in feeing a lawyer, if he can find the price. 
To strangers he looks very much alike, and it is a little 
hard to distinguish Jesus from Pancho. A story comes 
from Brownsville of a famous trial in which the jury were 
partly ]\Iexicans, as were the court officials. During the 
stir of getting reseated after a recess, the prisoner reached 
over and got his hat and coolly walked out of the door. 
Not until business was resumed did anybody notice his ab- 
sence, at which time he was crawling out of the Rio Grande 
on the safe side. 

Some years ago our town had a real sensation which 
set us all to talking. As near as I can remember the story, 
this woman shot a man at fiesta on the Mexican side of 



122 The Story of Corpus Christi 

the river, at Matamoros. She was placed in jail there, and, 
being an American, received no favors. One wild night, 
aided by friends, she escaped to this side. An old gentle- 
man. Dr. Head I think was his name, got a mount for her, 
and guided her through the wild country over cow trails, 
fearing pursuit and recapture. The poor woman broke her 
ankle in escaping, and arrived in town lame to helplessness, 
and with but the clothes she escaped in. The doctor car- 
ried her to the county jail for safety. The news went abroad 
and the good women of the town rallied to her aid, fur- 
nishing every comfort. A few days later the Mexican Gov- 
ernment demanded her extradition. Then it was the men's 
turn to rally, and they did not fail in their duty. It be- 
coming apparent that only by for.ce could she be removed, 
the case was dropped and she went free. I do not know 
the rights of the case, but I do know that the poor woman 
cast herself upon our mercy, and am proud to say that she 
came to the right place. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 123 



STORY OF RAIDS BY MEXICAN BANDITS 

GOOD FRIDAY, MARCH, 1875 

By Mrs. Sam Rankin 

Good Friday in March, 1875, is still remembered with 
lively interest by many of the present citizens of Corpus 
Christi. It was on that day that the citizenship of the city 
was thrown into a state of wild consternation by a law- 
less band of about thirty armed and mounted JMexicans, 
supposed to be the followers of famous Mexican bandit, 
Cortinez. The murders, robberies and other lawless deeds 
and outrages of this noted outlaw and his gang made man's 
inalienable right to the enjoyment of life, liberty and prop- 
erty an unknown quantity on either side of the lower Rio 
Grande, in years embraced within the decade covering the 
'70's. On the day named this band of armed outlaws made 
their appearance at Frank's store on the river road, ten 
miles distant from Corpus Christi. Here they not only 
robbed the store, but also captured, robbed and held as 
prisoners, all citizens wdio chanced to be traveling on that 
road, and passing Frank's store during their unwelcome 
stay. A boy, unobserved by the Mexicans, saw what they 
were doing and carried the news to Corpus Christi. One 
old gentleman who lived in Nueces County at the time 
says that a number of the citizens, men, women and chil- 
dren, believing that Corpus Christi was hopelessly doomed 
to be captured by these bandits, became panic stricken and 
sought safety on a vessel that w^as anchored at the wharf, 
and that one of the men who regarded prudence as the bet- 
ter part of valor, with his "pepper box" drawn, cocked and 
finger on trigger, led the retreating column to the boat. Oth- 
ers, however, with more composure and better judgment. 
armed themselves, went to meet the enemy on land and com- 
bat his entrance into the city. They preferred a land fight 
rather than a naval retreat. 

But touching the daring raid of these lawless Mexi- 



124 The Story of Corpus Christi 

cans, we will quote in substance from two old citizens, who 
are now and were then living in Corpus Christi. Here is 
w'hat they respectively say: 

R. R. Savage^'T was at my ranch, called Rancho 
Seco, twenty-five miles from Corpus Christi, on the day 
that the Mexicans made that raid into Nueces County, on 
Good Friday, in March, 1875. My w^fe and her mother, 
Mrs. E. D. Sidbury, were en route to my ranch. They were 
captured, robbed and held as prisoners as long as the bandits 
remained at Frank's store. When the robbers left Frank's 
store they released the women, but carried with them all 
the men, whom they held as prisoners. They carried away 
the driver and horses, and left Mrs. Sidbury and Mrs. 
Savage there afoot. They, with Miss Laura Allen, now 
Mrs. Benavides of Laredo, thinking they might possibly 
take a near cut through brush and beat the gang to Moakes 
store, only three miles distant, and give the news and arouse 
the country to action, took steps in that direction, but be- 
fore reaching there they heard shots and saw smoke rising, 
and knew that Noakes store had been set afire. Naturally 
they became nervous, thinking that every noise they heard 
near them w^as a Mexican bandit. They lost their course 
and wandered around in the brush until Sunday morning 
without food or water. They reached the river, but the 
bluff was so precipitous they could not get to the water. 
Finally they found the house of an American family, where 
they were provided with food and shelter. Tt was Sunday 
morning before news of what had happened reached me. 

"At Frank's store the bandits made the prisoners get 
in a ring, and guarded them. A Mexican among the prison- 
ers remarked, 'Well, I know you,' and instantly he w^as shot 
to death by his captors. At this place they had about 
twenty-five or thirty prisoners, including men and women, 
but took the men and horses with them, marching them 
three miles to Tom Noakes' store, on the river, at Nueces- 
town. The men were made to walk, and the conduct of 
the Mexicans toward them w'as quite brutal. They would 
run their horses over and otherwise abuse the prisoners. 
Judge Gilpin, who was a prisoner and quite old and feeble, 
gave out, and they knocked him down a time or two, and 



The Story of Corpus Christi 125 



exacted of him a task which he did not ha\c the physical 
strength to perform. They refused to release liim, and 
two of his fellow prisoners let him get between them and 
lock arms with them, and in that way they helped him along. 

"\\ hen they arrived at his store, Noakes saw that they 
were robbers and shot the first man that entered it, in- 
flicting upon him a severe if not fatal wound. To avenge 
the wound of their comrade in crime, they set fire to and 
burned the store, but they failed to get Noakes, he having 
made his escape through a subterranean channel which led 
from the store to the river. The store stood upon the bluff 
a short distance from the ri\er. He, knowing the lawless- 
ness that pervaded the country in those years, iTad provided 
this means of escape in case the emergency for using it 
should ever arise. Before applying the torch they took 
from the store all the goods they needed or that they could 
take with them. When the Mexican was shot by Noakes, 
a man named Smith ran out of the store and he was shot 
and struck in the chest with five balls discharged from 
their Winchester rifles. He recovered from these wounds, 
notwithstanding that the doctors thought that there was no 
chance at all for him to live. When Mrs. Noakes saw that 
they were going to burn the store, she told tliem if money 
was what they were after she would gi\e it to them if they 
would not burn the store. They told her then she had 
better get it quickly. She did so, giving them $500. They 
took the money and made her and her children get out of 
the store and applied the torch, thus burning Mr. Noakes 
out of house and home, leaving him and his family without 
a change of clothing. His loss was estimated at ^20,000. 

"All day .Saturday and up to Sunday morning 100 or 
more men had diligently searched the country for Mrs. 
Sidbury, who is now dead, and Mrs. Savage and Miss Al- 
len. They had about concluded that these ladies had been 
recaptured and carried away as prisoners when the news 
came that they had found their way to and were in the 
house of the American family as has been stated. 

"While this search was going on for the women, judge 
Sidney Gail Borden of San Patricio County, who lived just 
across the rixer from Nuecestown and who had been cap- 



126 The Story of Corpus Christi 

tured by this band of outlaws who stole from him a horse 
worth $250.00, hastily got together a company of about 
thirty men and pursued them to the Rio Grande, reaching 
that border just six hours after the enemy had crossed it 
and passed into Mexico. The release or escape of Judge 
Borden and the other prisoners was effected when the small 
party of eight or ten brave and daring men went out from 
Corpus Christi and attacked the Mexican raiders." 

On this point we will quote from Judge Whelan, who 
is now Justice of the Peace in Corpus Christi, and who was 
one of the attacking party. In substance he says : "I was 
one of the party that attacked the Mexican bandits. P. F. 
Dunn, who is now representing this district in the Legisla- 
ture ; Washington Mussett, John Dunn, James Dunn, 
George Dunn, Bass Burrass, George W. Swank and Clem 
Vetters, who was then a small boy, were the others. We 
overtook the Mexicans at 12 mile mott, that being the dis- 
tance from Corpus Christi. Noakes' store was burning 
when we reached there, but the Mexicans had withdrawn 
to the brush, taking with them two wagons and the prison- 
ers whom they had captured. We were told that they had 
taken Mrs. Sidbury, Mrs. Savage and Miss Allen with them 
as prisoners. As soon as we heard this we were determined 
that we would not wait for reinforcements, but would 
charge them in their stronghold. We had not proceeded 
more than a mile when from their protection under a cover 
of brush they received us with a volley from their Win- 
chesters. There were about three hundred shots exchanged. 
Swank fell on the first round. We pressed them back into 
thicker timber. We recaptured the prisoners and wagons, 
but by this time it had become too dark to continue the 
fight. We then fell back to Banquete for reinforcements, 
but before morning the Mexicans had scattered and we 
never came upon them any more. While one of our men, 
Mr. Swank, was killed, I am satisfied the Mexicans lost 
several. I saw one fall, and I afterward learned that three 
or four others who received mortal wounds died before they 
reached the Rio Grande. James and George Dunn and Bass 
Burrass, who were with us in this fight, have since died." 
From Mr. Savage it was learned that the Mexican who 



The Story of Corpus Christi 127 

had been wounded by Mr. Noakes was caught the day after 
he had been shot by some of the men who were hunting 
for the lost women. He had been too badly hurt to bear 
the hard riding necessary to escape being captured before 
he could get back to the Mexicans, and his comrades had 
left him with some Mexicans who were asked to take care 
of him. They were taking him to town in a wagon when 
his captors discovered him and took charge of him. He 
was identified by some of those whom he had ill-treated 
when they were held prisoners by him and his band. He 
had proven himself to be the most brutal one of tbe band, 
and it is needless to say that his case was speedily disposed 
of without the intervention of judge or jury. 

This raid was perhaps the most daring ever made as 
far into the interior of our country by an armed band of 
foreign bandits, it being over one hundred miles from 
Frank's store to the Mexican border. Rut whatever may 
be said or thought of this raid it should be remembered 
that at that time the sparsely settled country, coupled with 
other conditions favorable to raiding squads and bands of 
outlaws, explains in a great measure why these marauders 
were not overtaken, captured or annihilated before they 
could return to the south side of the Rio Grande. Large 
stretches of country in the Rio Grande Valley covered with 
dense thickets of cactus, chaparral and other growths made 
it almost impossible to overhaul them after they had gotten 
a start of six or twelve hours ahead of their pursuers. 

Judge Gilpin believed himself to be the first American 
to visit our coast. He landed on the site of the present city 
in the winter of 1829, the only occupant of a small schooner 
that sailed from New Orleans. There was no evidence of 
human habitation and as the Judge did not know that the 
wrecked sailor, Whelan, had landed in 1824, he believed 
himself to be the first white man to view our bluff and 
two bays. He went from here to Mexico, returning in 1848. 
He became a pioneer merchant, as a garrison had been 
established and settlers had come during his absence. He 
sold goods in the Belden Building, at the corner of Cbap- 
arral and AMlliams streets ; his partners were Mr. Belden, 
Jake Owens and William IMann. No doubt they did a good 



128 The Story of Corpus Christi 

business, as they had all the Rio Grande country and part 
of Mexico as customers. 

After the Army had moved homeward, a small detach- 
ment of Rangers under Captain Sutton was stationed here. 
Later they were ordered to Austin. They were out but one 
day when trouble broke loose in Corpus village. Captain 
Kinney had enlisted a company of one hundred and thirty 
men with whose aid he intended to found a new republic 
on the Rio Grande. The expedition had failed, as the Cap- 
tain covild not finance accoutrements and supplies. The 
shipload from New Orleans, which arrived, being held for 
cash, and returned with load to the parties who had sent 
her. This disheartened the lawless men who were waiting 
to march and as soon as the troops were gone they or- 
ganized a reign of terror. A courier w'as dispatched after 
the Rangers, who made a forced march back, and quelled 
the disturbance, and another dream of conquest south of 
the Rio Grande failed. 

judge Gilpin later became a leading light in the South- 
w'est, having held office of Chief Justice for a number of 
years, and served three terms in the Legislature, he knew all 
the old people, and many thrilling stories of the frontier. 
The death of Captain Kinney, the wounding of Captain 
Berry and Captain Cook by Indian arrows. He was cap- 
tured by Mexican raiders of 1875. Later he went into the 
ranching business, having purchased a place about forty 
miles west of Corpus Christi. Though he lived in stirring 
times and had many close calls he died peacefully in his 
bed at an advanced age, mourned by all who knew him. 
A Christian of Episcopal faith, a Mason of high standing, 
carrying with him to the rough frontier the rigid honesty 
of his youthful training. He was a native of Newport, 
Rhode Island. He sleeps in the old Military Cemetery. 
With the exception of a monument raised by relatives and 
friends, we have never heard that our people have honored 
his memory by naming even a street or an alley for him. 
I agree that he was our first American pioneer, as likely 
Mr. \A'l'ielan (no relative of the Judge of that name) was 
a son of Auld Erin. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 129 



CORPUS CHRISTI POSTMASTERS 



Office established May 30, 1846, \\'illiam P. Aubry, 
postmaster; likely established for Taylor's troops. 

September 21, 1847 — H. D. Norton. 
November 30, 1848 — D. W. Brewster. 
January 21, 1852 — C. Cahill. 
May 27, 1854 — H. W. Berry. 
December 5, 1855 — \\'illiam I. Moore. 
November 22, 1856 — Charles E. Bryant. 
June I, 1857 — George Robertson. 
August 24, 1865 — Henry Taylor. 
September 4, 1865— Jane L. Marsh. 
September 2, 1867 — Hannah Taylor. 
December 22, 1869 — John Dix. 
April 24, 1870 — John McClane. 
April 6, 1875— I. W. Ward. 
December i, 1880 — John M. Swisher. 
May I, 1884— J. H. C. \\hite. 
June I, 1888 — Thomas B. Southgate. 
May 10, 1890 — L. D. Camp. 
May 9, 1894 — James T. Rankin. 
May 16, 1898 — Julius Henry. 
June 2^, 1904 — T. D. Ward. 
March 24, 191 1 — E. G. Crabbe. 
May II, 1915 — Mrs. Georgia Welch. 



130 The Story of Corpus Christi 



BEGINNING AND ENDING OF 
THE CIVIL WAR 



This bit of history was told the writer by Mr. J. W. 
Golledge, an old-time printer of Corpus Christi. Mr. Goll- 
edge worked on our one newspaper, the Nueces Valley, in 
1856, and was present at the taking of the Government 
Station at Point Isabel by the Texas troops. He says on 
the 1 8th day of February, 1861, we sailed from Galveston 
for the mouth of the Rio Grande, we were commanded by 
General McLeod, and had the following companies on 
board : Lone Star Rifles, Galveston Rifles, Galveston Ar- 
tillery and Davis Guard. These four companies belonging 
to Galveston, Fort Bend Rifles, of Fort Bend County, and 
Gentry Guards of Houston. Arriving at our destination, we 
received surrender of station, hauling down the old flag 
and hoisting our flag in its place (supposedly flag of Texas, 
as we had not yet adopted Stars and Bars). We got a 
large amount of ammunition and stores. The commander 
of the fort surrendered without a fight and expressed sym- 
pathy in our cause. (Unfortunately Mr. Golledge did not 
remember the name of this officer.) Our command then 
returned to Galveston about the first of March, 1861. We 
were more than a month in advance of South Carolina in 
declaring our intentions to defend our State rights, but alas 
we were six weeks from a telegraph station and in the ex- 
citement of the times we never received credit for opening 
the War, and right here four years later our banner would 
wave over a victorious little army, and for the last time 
the Rebel yell would resound over a victorious field. Mr. 
Golledge was present at the fight, on the staff of Colonel 
Rip Ford. He says we captured about thirty prisoners, and 
a wagon train loaded with supplies. We chased them to 
the vicinity of their fort and fleet, and night ended the 



The Story of Corpus Christi 131 

rout. Next morning Colonel Ford was arranging to parole 
his prisoners when news arrived that peace was declared. 
The Yankee officer bearing the news was quite chummy, 
and he and his escort joined the Colonel and other Rebel 
officers in celebrating the event by drinking to each other 
of good whiskey, captured among hospital stores on the 
wagon train, even the privates were called up and given a 
treat. Ford said, "The war is over and my prisoners go 
free, but it was not over yesterday when 1 captured this 
wagon train, and I will keep it," and he did. Whether 
Uncle Sam ever got his train again I do not know, but I 
think from something I read in an old Chronicle that the 
horses and mules were taken as mounts by the soldiers, and 
the wagon and goods abandoned on the Brownsville road, 
south of this city. 



132 The Story of Corpus Christi 



SOME EARLY SETTLERS 



J. H. KEEPERS 

Mr. Keepers is a veteran and in the winter of life, but 
despite his years, he has kept youth in his heart and he and 
his good wife are true Southerners, of the class of which 
we are proud, in this summer of 191 5. They are progres- 
sive citizens and in touch with all passing events, holding 
the memory of the old South sacred, and have aided in build- 
ing the new. 

Mr. Keepers says : 'T belonged to an independent 
cavalry company, commanded by one of the best men I ever 
knew, Captain Dan Grady. Our company was raised in 
Bastrop Covmty, and our first recognition as a company in 
the service was an order to march to the coast. This was 
in '62. We came by way of Beeville, then a small town, 
of which I have but little recollection. Leaving there we 
headed for Corpus Christi, crossing the Nueces River near 
its mouth, where we camped that night, near some few 
houses, supposedly the Motts, or Nuecestown, and the next 
morning we rode into Corpus Christi. My recollection of 
the place is vivid. To me it looked like a place of con- 
siderable importance ; on the streets I saw many Mexican 
carts, with their Mexican teams and drivers ; to me they 
were interesting, as they were the first I ever saw, and I 
began to feel as if the fortunes of war had carried us to 
a different country. There were several stores and saloons 
open, and business seemed good. Returning after many 
years, the place seemed turned around. The only spot I 
could place was the old vSt. James corner. I don't know if 
it is the same building, but I am sure of the corner, as it 
was the center of the business district at that time. We 
tarried in town a few hours, then left for the Rio Grande, 
via King's Ranch, where we camped that night. On reach- 



The Story of Corpus Christi 133 

iiig the ranch our Captain inquired for Captain King, but 
for some reason the ranchero did not appear. \\'e repeated 
our request several times, and he did not appear, and our 
boys were getting anxious, for upon a deal for beef de- 
pended our supper. Finally the Captain came out, being 
satisfied. 1 suppose, that our company were Rebels and 
friends. We got the beef and spent the night here. The place 
impressed me as did the owner, as an oasis in a savage wil- 
derness, where a man must be assured of the intentions of 
his visitors before he would meet them. Two cannon mounted 
in the top of the house also impressed me and strengthened 
my feeling that 1 had got out from under our Lone Star 
flag. The next morning we rode away to Ringgold Bar- 
racks. Years after I returned to Corpus Christi, but as 
I stated, the place had turned and changed beyond recog- 
nition. The bluff was still here, also the bay and St. James 
corner, otherwise I was lost. But the worst is yet to come. 
I have been regularly visiting the city for the last several 
years, and find that Corpus keeps changing between trips, 
and that I have to keep locating former known spots. 
Picturesque ox carts and drivers are gone. The adobe 
houses and muddy streets have given way to reinforced 
concrete and Bitulithic, and if Captain Dan Brady and his 
brave band of youthful Texans should come back over the 
bluff today, upon the present city, they, like myself, would 
look in surprise on this modern city which we knew as a 
village when the world was young. 

WILLIAM ROGERS 

Bi) E. T. Merriman 

\\ illiam Rogers, a native of Cowago County, Alabama, 
with his mother's family, came to Corpus Christi at the be- 
ginning of the Mexican \\'ar. Mr. Rogers was connected 
with the Second United States Dragoons, and with them 
was ordered to Matamoros. in April, 1846. He left Corpus 
Christi with a band of fifteen men and two women, but 
when about one hundred miles out of Corpus Christi, the 
party was captured by a l)and of Mexican guerillas, and 



134 The Story of Corpus Christi 

promptly murdered by having their throats cut, after be- 
ing tied, and their bodies thrown into the waters of the 
Arroyo Colorado, the women meeting the same fate, but 
William Rogers was not to die with his family, his terrible 
wound was not fatal, and after four days of indescribable 
suffering, he reached Fort Brown, where he received first 
aid from military surgeons, who removed numbers of screw 
worms from his wound, the marks of which he carried to 
the grave, a clean scar from ear to ear. At the end of four 
months he was out again, and it is said that for the next 
few years he followed and dealt with Mexican guerillas. 
Old stories have it that one man of the forty that attacked 
that peaceful party on the Arroyo Colorado escaped his 
aim. We say peaceful, as we have been told that this was 
one of the sutler's wagons (most of the men being un- 
armed), belonging to the Second Dragoons, consequently 
a rich prize for the bandits, and illustrating our perfect ig- 
norance of our dusky foe; no unarmed party would think 
of convoying goods to Rio Grande even now. 

Mr. Rogers returned to Corpus Christi in 1854, hav- 
ing previously purchased the Palo Alto R.anch and bought 
fifty head of cattle from Elder Barden, and for a time 
traded in stock, though he repeatedly suffered depredations 
from Mexican cattle thieves. In 1868 his holdings con- 
sisted of thirteen hundred head of horse stock and twenty- 
eight hundred head of cattle. These he traded off for cash 
and bought the St. James Hotel, then in course of erection, 
paying thirteen thousand for this noted old corner, five thou- 
sand dollars more was spent in finishing and furnishing it, 
and it became Corpus Christi's one and only hotel, where 
many noted men have rested in their day. Mr. Rogers had 
faith in improved stock, and during our Civil AVar imported 
direct from Spain ten rams of the best breed, for which 
he paid thirty dollars each in gold. He believed these ani- 
mals to be the best ever brought to Texas. Later we find 
him buying land north of San Diego. He owns the Maria 
Ranch of nineteen thousand acres, the Chusa Ranch in Mc- 
MuUen County, twenty-seven thousand acres, one thousand 
of which are under fence, and one hundred in cultivation. 
Three thousand goats and twenty thousand sheep, value 



The Story of Corpus Christi 135 

two to eight dollars per head, land valued at one dollar to 
one dollar and a half an acre. A residence in Corpus 
Christi of the value of five thousand dollars, two large 
warehouses and the St. James Hotel from which he derives 
a rental of twenty-four hundred dollars per year. Last 
spring his wool clip brought between six and seven thousand 
dollars. (This article published in a local paper sometime 
in the seventies, is to stimulate others to go into siieep and 
cattle raising, then considered the only crop for this sec- 
tion.) Under the head of "Another Good Man Gone," our 
local paper. Corpus Christi Free Press, under tiic date 
of December 17, 1877, chronicles the funeral of Hon. Wil- 
liam Rogers, at that time a member of Legislature from 
this district. At the age of fifty-six he died, surrounded 
by family and friends, and mourned by good people through- 
out Southwest Texas. We copy verbatim the notice of pro- 
cession which escorted the body to its last resting place : 

".Star Rifles, escort. Fire Department. Music (pro- 
vided by Masons). Hearse. Family. Citizens on horse- 
back. Citizens in carriages." 

This good man rests in the old Bay View (or properly, 
Military) Cemetery, among the friends of his strenuous 
youth, the beautiful resting place of our pioneer dead. This 
sacred spot belongs to our city and our people are to unite 
in beautifying this cemetery and caring for the ashes of 
men who made history in early days. Old landmarks are 
gone, only this old cemetery with its weather-stained tomb- 
stones remains, a link between then and now. (The paper 
from which this article was taken was loaned by Mr. E. T. 
Merriman, for years the editor of our own reliable paper, 
and always a true son of Corpus Christi.) 

BLOOD BROTHERS 

Mark Downey was an Irishman and proud of it, al- 
though he was born in the city of London. He kept a 
stove and tin shop in Corpus Christi just after the W'ar. 

Hugh R. Sutherland was a Scotchman, born in 
Toronto, Canada, coming to Corpus Christi in seventy-six, 
he worked as a builder. Going into Downey's shop one day 



136 The Story of Corpus Christi 

shortly after his arrival, the talk turned to the late War. 
"I was in Northern Virginia," said Mark. "Hays' Louis- 
iana Brigade." "You were," said Hugh; "I was in Wil- 
cox Alabama Brigade." Questions and answers flew thick 
and fast. "Were you in railroad cut when the Louisianians 
fought and held the enemy at bay with rocks?" (Fact.) 
"My regiment, the Ninth Alabama, brought ammunition and 
helped rout the Yanks." By this time Mark was over the 
counter and they were in each other's arms, these men who 
had met for the first time in Southwest Texas to talk over 
the glorious deeds of their army, of the officers both had 
followed, and of the comrades who were left on the battle- 
field. From that meeting grew a friendship which ended 
only with life, what the Indians call "blood brothers," were 
those two men. They shared their troubles and pleasures, 
and were such earnest Southerners that their good wives 
were continually afraid that they would start a little war 
of their own. Kindly, honest men, with a word of cheer 
or a little help for every less fortunate comrade who came 
to them, often imposed upon but never discouraged. Their 
children were taught to love the South with its traditions, 
and their one son each, declared that their catechism gave 
us as the greatest man, Jeff Davis ; general, Robert E. Lee ; 
strategist, Stonewall Jackson ; cavalry commander, Jeb 
Stuart. Then after a Sunday school lesson with their moth- 
ers they got all mixed up and were not able to separate 
Goliath, Lazarus and Ananias from their fathers' teach- 
ings. Those two boys inherited the same sunny, fun-loving 
dispositions of their fathers, and we are disposed to think 
that they sometimes imitated the last named Bible character. 
This little story goes to prove that there was some- 
thing lovable about our people of the old South. These 
men, born under a foreign flag, fought four years side by 
side, where glory was the only rew'ard. No pay and scant 
rations, and at the end elected to come with our broken 
people and help build a new South on the ashes of the old, 
dying in the belief that they w^ere right, peace to their ashes. 
May they rest with their old commander, under the shade 
of the trees, which he saw in his last moments. Our own 
Stonewall Jackson. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 137 



DR. E. T. MERRIiMAN 

Dr. Eli T, Merriman was among the prominent citi- 
zens of Corpus Christi fifty years ago, moving here from 
Banquete, Nueces County, at the close of the Civil War. 
Born in Bristol, Connecticut, February i, 1815, under the 
shadow of the Charter Oak, he graduated at Yale March 
4, 1833, and subsequently obtained diplomas as an M. D. 
at the University of Pennsylvania and Bermont Academy 
of Medicine. In 1838 he moved to Texas, first settling at 
Bastrop. Removing thence to San Marcos, and afterwards 
to Edinburgh, Hidalgo County, thence to Banquete, in the 
early fifties, moving to Corpus Christi in 18O5. He prac- 
ticed his profession constantly for thirty-three years, serv- 
ing the Lone Star Republic as a private soldier and as a 
surgeon. When she changed into a State he became a 
Representative in her Legislature. W'ith a large majority 
of his friends and neighbors he embraced the Southern 
Confederacy, and as a surgeon gave the benefit of his skill 
and experience. In 1867 he fell a victim to yellow fever 
which visited the Texas coast during that year. As a citi- 
zen he was enterprising and liberal ; as a practicioner he 
was efficient and obliging, full of kindness. A true friend 
and a kind husband and father. His death was regarded as 
a public calamity. His widow, Mrs. Elizabeth INTerriman, 
opened a private boarding house, which she kept for thirty- 
three years, the Merriman House being one of the favorite 
boarding places of Southwest Texas, from 1867 to 1900, 
when Mrs. Merriman retired, making her home with her 
eldest son, E. T. Merriman, until her death in July, 191 1. 

Dr. Merriman kept a hospital open during the War, 
where Confederate soldiers were cared for; also a hospital 
for contagious cases out at Banquete, giving freely of his 
time and means to the cause he had adopted. His kind- 
ness and charity endeared him to the men under his care, 
and through this he did his greatest work. When the war 
was over and chaos reigned, his influence with all classes 
averted more than one lawless act, and saved his citv from 



^ 138 The Story of Corpus Christi 

a reign of terror. A better man, a better citizen, a better 
Southerner never came to West Texas than Dr. E. T. Merri- 
man. 

DR. GEORGE ROBERTSON 

Among Corpus Christi's early and most highly esteemed 
citizens and professional men was Dr. George Robertson, 
who immigrated with his wife and family to Corpus Christi 
in 1854 from Aberdeen, Scotland, establishing a drug busi- 
ness here which he conducted up to the time of his demise, 
August 10, 1867, when he was stricken with yellow fever, 
living only a few days after being attacked by that dreadful 
disease. Dr. Robertson held the position of Postmaster un- 
der the United States Government for six years, and re- 
mained in office during the Civil War, under the Con- 
federate States. He also held many municipal positions, 
was Mayor of the city, and a general favorite in the com- 
munity. He was highly respected by all who knew him, 
and his loss was keenly felt. He left a devoted wife and 
four children, as well as a host of friends to mourn the 
loss of a dear husband, father and friend. 



MRS. MARY A. SUTHERLAND 

By E. T. Merriman 

There is no woman in Corpus Christi better and more 
favorably known that is Mrs. Mary A. Sutherland, mother 
of H. R. Sutherland, one of the city's prominent attorneys. 

A Southerner by birth, a native of the State of Ala- 
bama, she has been and is today a champion of Southern 
rights, and though in sympathy with the "lost cause" and 
a lover of the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy, she 
is patriotic and a staunch friend of the Red, A\ hite and 
Blue, and ever ready to raise her voice in defense of Old 
Glory, and the Land of Sweet Liberty. 

Mrs. Sutherland came to Corpus Christi in 1876 with 
her husband, H. R. Sutherland, Sr., now passed to the 



The Story of Corpus Christi 139 



"Great Beyond," and their two children, H. R., Jr., and 
Gussie, afterwards Mrs. Cronkey, now deceased. 

Her residence of nearly forty years entitles her to be- 
ing classed as an old settler of the Bluff City, to which she 
is so much attached. 

No woman has taken more interest in the city's prog- 
ress and development than has Mrs. Sutherland, she hav- 
ing been among the leaders in numbers of things for the 
good of the town, such as assisting in the beautification of 
the bluff, cemetery work, pavilion work and other improve- 
ments. Being a woman of great executive ability, sound 
reasoning and perseverance, Mrs. Sutherland has accom- 
plished much for the city's good in all her undertakings, 
as well as securing for herself and her children some valu- 
able property. She, like others, has had her trials and 
burdens to bear, but with it all she is still engaged in good 
work, ready to assist her people in all the interests of the 
town. 

A staunch member of the Methodist Church, a good 
Christian woman, ever willing to assist those in distress and 
need. 

Mrs. Sutherland is a pleasing talker, and is always glad 
to greet her friends at her home on Starr Street, where she 
resides with her two accomplished granddaughters. Misses 
Annie and Hugh Cronkey. 



140 The Story of Corpus Christi 



THE DAUGHTERS OF THE 
CONFEDERACY 



By Mrs. W. B. Hopkins 



Daughters of the Confederacy ! What nobler title 
could a woman wear, what prouder heritage could be 
handed down than this name first bestowed upon the fair 
young girl, Winnie Davis, and now claimed by more than 
one hundred thousand women. Pledging themselves to 
keep alive the memory of those immortal heroes, whose 
deeds of valor for their beloved land stand out as the most 
brilliant in the pages of history ; to teach their children and 
their children's children loyalty to the hallowed traditions 
of the Southland ; to cherish its history and to love and 
honor its brave defenders, the women of the South, in 1894, 
banded themselves together in an organization known as the 
United Daughters of the Confederacy. 

From its inception, the avowed purpose of this organi- 
zation has been, not to foster sectional hate, but to bring 
about a better understanding of those sacred principles for 
which the men of the South gave their lives, to "set a watch 
lest the old traditions fail." 

The women of Corpus Christi, not a few of whom were 
born in the stormy days of war, and rocked in the cradle 
of the Confederacy, formed in 1912 the Corpus Christi 
Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. 
Present at the temporary organization, and lending much 
aid and inspiration, was Mrs. Mabel Mussey Bates, and to 
her the Chapter shall ever feel very grateful. At a later 
meeting a permanent organization was effected, and the 
following officers elected : 

President, Mrs. H. H. Craig. 
First Vice President, Mrs. D. McNeil Turner. 
Second Vice President, Mrs. Bettie T. Robertson. 
Third Vice President, Mrs. Clay Roberts. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 141 

Fourth Vice President, Mrs. George I'Vench. 
Treasurer, Mrs. R. L. Garrett. 
Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Gordon Boone. 
Recording Secretary, Mrs. O. M. Suttle. 
Historian, Mrs. Mary Sutherland. 
Registrar, Miss Mary Woods. 

The charter contained the names of twenty-two mem- 
bers : Mrs. Mary Sutherland, Mrs. Cieorge French, Mrs. 
H. H. Craig, Mrs. D. McNeil Turner, Mrs. A. C. I'^owler, 
Miss Mary Woods, Miss Ella Thomas, Mrs. G. F. Martin, 
Miss Mary Carroll, Mrs. E. A. Born, Mrs. H. R. Sutli£r- 
land, Mrs. W. B. Hopkins, Mrs. S. J. Sorrell, Mrs. W. A. 
Connor, Mrs. C. H. Steele, Miss Annie S. Cronkey, Miss 
Hugh S. Cronkey, Mrs. Mayfield Wilkinson, Mrs. Charles 
Carroll, Mrs. Clay Roberts, Mrs. Ciordon Boone, Miss Mary 
Lee Thompson. 

From the date of its organization, the Corpus Christi 
Chapter has never failed to hold the interest of its members. 
To keep alive the memories of the old South, the programs 
have featured songs and poems that brought back thoughts 
of days before the War. By observing, with open meetings, 
special days of historic import, by the rendition of splendid 
literary, musical and patriotic programs, a deep interest has 
been maintained. 

But by no means have other than social features been 
neglected, for the bcneficencies of the Chapter have been 
generous and widespread. 

Deploring the fact that .Southwest Texas had done so 
little in the way of erecting monuments to the heroes of 
the "lost cause," the women of the Corpus Christi Chapter 
determined that some day the\- would rear a fitting me- 
morial to the noble Texans who gave their lives for the 
South. The consummation of this idea was the crowning 
feature of Mrs. IT. H. Craig's tenure of office, ^\'ith a 
memliership of only fifty women, the undertaking seemed 
a stupendous one, l)Ut what was lacking in numbers, they 
made up in zeal and loyalty. That this memorial should 
take the form of a public drinking fountain was the unani- 
mous decision of the Chapter and Pompeo Coppini, noted 



142 The Story of Corpus Christi 

sculptor of San Antonio, was called to consult with them. 
Inspired during his visit here by the natural beauties of 
Corpus Christi, the result was a conception radically dif- 
ferent from the stereotyped memorial. Corpus Christi 
should be represented as a beautiful maiden, and on either 
side of her were Father Neptune and Mother Earth plac- 
ing a crown upon her head, while at her feet were trophies 
of sea and land, and in the background figures symbolical 
of the riches and resources of our land. These figures, 
heroic in size, were to stand in high relief against a semi- 
circular background. On- his return to San Antonio Mr. 
Coppini embodied his ideas in clay and a committee con- 
sisting of Mesdames D. McNeil Turner and E. A. Born 
was sent to San Antonio, there to be assisted by Mr. Atlee 
Ayers in passing judgment upon the design. They were 
delighted and accepted the model at once. Mr. Coppini's 
proposition was that he would make the Chapter a gift of 
his labor, charging only for the materials used and for the 
workmen who cast the model and for the expense of setting 
it up, and for this one thousand dollars must be paid. 

Aided by a very forceful trio of women as finance 
committee, Mesdames H. D. McDonald, Sam Rankin and 
S. A. Early, the work of raising the necessary funds was 
accomplished in a very short time, despite the stringency in 
the money market, occasioned by the outbreak of the 
European War. Every means of turning an honest penny 
was employed, rummage sales yielded their quota, moving 
pictures were staged, waffle suppers enticed the dollars 
from unwilling pockets, and the women even acted as clerks 
on a special sales day of a furniture store in return for 
a percentage of the profits. The Corpus Christi Daily 
Caller generously placed at the disposal of the Chapter its 
entire outfit and working force in getting out a U. D. C. 
Special, and the results surpassed the most sanguine ex- 
pectations. Generous contributions from members of the 
Chapter, the Rotary Club, the various banks and the citi- 
zens at large swelled the sum to still larger proportions, 
and what had loomed as a stupendous undertaking was soon 
an accomplished fact. 

The courteous and progressive Mayor of Corpus 



The Story of Corpus Christi 143 

Christi, Hon. Roy Miller, in consulting with a committee 
from the Chapter regarding the placing of the fountain, 
found that by slightly altering the plans for bluff beautifi- 
cation, just about to be carried out, the fountain could be 
given a conspicuous place at the convergence of the two 
great granite steps on the side of the bluff back of the City 
Hall. The location serves to show to greater advantage the 
beauty of the sculptured figures and makes the Confederate 
memorial observed of all observers. 

With the completion of the fountain, Mrs. Craig, whose 
health and personal bereavement had made the position of 
President an onerous one, resigned and the following corps 
of new officers were chosen. May, 1915: 

President, Mrs. H. D. McDonald. 
First Vice President, Mrs. Sam Rankin. 
Second Vice President, Mrs. Charles Carroll. 
Third Vice President, Miss Mary Lee Thompson. 
Fourth Vice President, Mrs. Gordon Boone. 
Treasurer, Mrs. S. A. Early. 

Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. B. T. Robertson. 
Recording Secretary, Mrs. W. B. Hopkins. 
Registrar, Miss Mary Woods. 
Historian, Mrs. Mary Sutherland. 

With characteristic energy, the newly elected President 
has launched an undertaking that promises to bring honors 
as well as financial gains to the Chapter. Mrs. Mary 
Sutherland, widow of a Confederate veteran, and herself 
an almost life-long resident of this city, a woman noted for 
her intense loyalty and devotion to the "lost cause," has 
for years been collecting data for a history of Corpus 
Christi. a collection of unique information from a mind well 
stored with facts that have long l)cen forgotten by the ma- 
jority of Corpus Christians. With no thought of self-ag- 
grandizement, and desiring only that her beloved Chapter 
might be the beneficiary, Mrs. Sutherland has given this 
work in its entirety to the Corpus Christi Chapter. The 
President, recognizing in it a work of rare interest to all 
who have ever lived in this beautiful city, at once pushed 
forward the publication of the book, and the Corpus Christi 



144 The Story of Corpus Christi 

Chapter is proud to give it to the pubHc, and proud of the 
grand woman whose life work it has been. 

This brief history of the Corpus Christi Chapter would 
be incomplete without a passing mention of the two mem- 
bers claimed by death, and whose loss has been so keenly 
felt, Mrs. Mary Chatfield Watts and Mrs. Annie Pope Con- 
nor. In the death of Captain J. B. Thompson, Mr. H. H. 
Craig and Mr. M. T. Gaffney, the Chapter has sustained 
the loss of true and loyal friends. 

Taken all in all, the Corpus Christi Chapter has every 
right to feel proud of its achievements, and using the past 
as an augury of the future, enters into a new year with 
serene and hopeful hearts. 



The Story of Corpus Christi 145 



THE CORPUS CHRISTI 
OF TODAY 



In closing The Story of Corpus Christi, the Corpus 
Christi of today, will be very briefly reviewed, the growth 
of the city during the past ten years going forward by such 
leaps and bounds until today, with the single exception of 
Galveston, it is the largest city on the Texas Coast and is 
growing more rapidly than any other in South Texas. 

In proportion to population more improvements that 
make for successful city building have been secured within 
the past ten years than in any city in the Southland, and the 
increase in population and business and property values 
has kept pace with the improvements. 

The present population is eighteen thousand, based on a 
most conservative estimate. The Federal census in 1910 
was for less than ten thousand. 

Ten miles of streets have been paved with bitulithic 
pavement during the past three years. A causeway span- 
ning Nueces Bay. connecting the mainlands of Nueces and 
San Patricio County, has been completed at the expense of 
Nueces County, opening up for Corpus Christi a vast retail 
trade from San Patricio, Bee, Aransas and other nearby 
counties. 

A beautiful fi\e-story Court House, costing a quarter 
million dollars, has been erected. A portion of the blufif 
has been improved with every prospect that 19 16 will wit- 
ness a completion of the work. 

A municipal wharf, costing fifty thousand dollars, has 
been constructed. Buildings erected in the city during 191 5 



146 The Story of Corpus Christi 

cost one-half million dollars. The Government is now build- 
ing, at a cost of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, a 
magnificent three-story Federal Building at the corner of 
Lower North Broadway and Starr Streets. 

Two beautiful and modern hotels have been erected 
within the past few years. The Nueces and The Corpus 
Beach, the first a six-story structure with two hundred and 
twenty guest rooms, and the latter a four-story building with 
one hundred and thirty guest rooms. Both are fireproof and 
are modern in every respect. In addition Corpus Christi 
has many other first-class hotels, including The State, a four- 
story building, and The Seaside and Home, both having 
been established for many years and having an enviable rec- 
ord with the traveling public. 

Corpus Christi recently has secured a modern city water 
supply, having voted three hundred thousand dollars in 
bonds, that was sufficient to so improve the municipal plant 
that it will provide sufficient water for a city twice as large 
as the Corpus Christi of today. 

In many other ways the progress of the city has de- 
veloped within the past few years, during 1914 and 1915 
alone six hundred private dwellings being erected within the 
city limits and adjoining additions. 

Men, women and children of the city have a most opti- 
mistic faith in the future of Corpus Christi and work untir- 
ingly for the progress of the city so that the day may not be 
far distant when Corpus Christi is not only the largest city 
in South Texas but also the best place in which to live 
throughout all the Southland. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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